Companions
by LadyFenris22
Summary: Imagine Merrill would manage to repair the Eluvian. However it works "better" than she actually expected and it opens a portal to a strange world, full of unknown magic, new friends and many other secrets... Set during Dragon Age 2, after the battle with the Arishok and during the Daimatou Enbu arc. Possible Pairings: F!mage Hawke x Fenris, NaLu, GaLe, Gruvia
1. The Eluvian

**DA II x Fairy Tail: Companions**

 **Chapter 1: The Eluvian:**

After hours of interrogation Varric was still sitting in that awful, dark room in front of the grumpy seeker who didn't seem to be even a bit bored or tired by her job. He had told her everything from Hawke's arrival in Kirkwall up to the battle with the Arishok, 4 years after. The event that caused her to be named Champion of Kirkwall.

„The Champion defeated the Arishok in single combat?", she asked rethorically. „That sounds so romantic." Cassandra ended her coment unbelievingly.

„It's not like she was keen on doing it, seeker, but she had no other choice. The safety of the city was at stake and more importantly, she protected a friend."

„You mean that pirate?", Cassandra asked. „Yes, but to Hawke Isabela wasn't just a pirate who ocasionally happened to help her, she was her beloved friend, perhaps even family. Hawke was just like that."

„I am still not sure if I can believe you, dwarf. These things are completely different from what I have expected and sound so...crazy, unrealistic, like one of your tales..."  
„You know my tales, seeker?", Varric asked triumphantly,grinning widely.

„I...I...uh...heard of them,... I... it's not like I would read such trash..." she stutterd while blushing, her face taking on the colour of a tomato.

Varric chuckled at the sight and continued: „Then I hope I will not end up under your sword, seeker. What I am going to tell you now is far more crazy and unrealistic than everything you have heard so far.

„Go on, I will decide after you finish, dwarf.", she responded.

„Alright, then.", Varric began. „Let's see. After the Arishok was defeated and the Qunari driven out of Kirkwall, there was no leader. The Viscount was dead and Knight Commander Meredith de facto became the new Viscount, though of course not oficially. Hawke being the Champion became the most important person in Kirkwall besides Meredith.

More powerful then ever the Knight Commander tightned her grip on the mages. And the more she sqeezed the more they resisted. The more they resisted the more she squeezed.

The tension became unbearable. As a mage herself Hawke thus became a mediator between First Enchanter Orsino and Knight Commander Meredith, and for a long time she managed to keep them from declaring open war to eachother.

It was a stressful life the champion was forced to lead and she was happy when she had time to spend with us, her friends, without all that fighting and talking to the conflict parties, as were we all.

On that special day Merrill, the elven dalish mage anounced her great news to us. After Hawke had helped her with getting the Alurin'Holm, an ancient elven artefact, she managed to repair the Eluvian with it.

Also an ancient elven artefact it was supposed to serve as a comunication system in the times of Arlethan. But the knowledge of this magic was lost, as many things were to the elves, so it is unnecessary to mention how proud she was when she invited us all to her home to tell us. She thought she restored a piece of elven history after all."

Fenris sighed annoyedly as he and Hawke were making their way through Lowtown to Merrill's place. „What is it, Fenris?", she asked with an amused undertone. „I can't believe we are encouraging that dalish whitch with her wicked plans, and I am part of it!", he exclaimed. Perhaps a bit louder than he actually intended to be. Hawke chuckeled.

„Oh don't be so mean. I admit that Merrill often messes things up but she never truly means any evil or harm to anyone."

Hawke could never be angry at Fenris. After all she knew what he went through. It was only natural that he was suspicious.

„I hope your kindness will not be our ruin.",was all he replied. Fenris admired this about Hawke. Her humor and her compassion towards others. Even in the stickiest situations she managed to keep her smile. Despite her being a mage he couldn't help but grow fond of her.

They finally reached Merrill's house. Hawke knocked gently at her door. It was immediatly opened and revealed a childishly excited Merrill.

„You are finally here! Come in!", she exclaimed. She then grasped Hawke by her wrist and pulled her into her home. Grumpy Fenris followed without losing a word.

As they entered everyone was already there. Varric and Anders were standing next to eachother, appearantly doing some smalltalk. Isabela and Aveline were found each on the opposite side of the small living room, keeping as much distance as was possible.

The two women saw Hawke first. Aveline greeted her with her usual nod. An honorful gesture, quite suitable for a proud warrior like her.

Isabela on the other hand gave her a cocky smile. Paired with her sharp gaze, she revealed her easy and joyful nature.

Hawke returned their greetings with a friendly smile. Anders turned to her and Fenris and first greeted her friendly and then frowned to Fenris, which was returned with a more angry frown from the elf's side. Hawke rolled her eyes. These two were really behaving like little school boys.

„Hawke!", Varric smiled at her. At least there was one who wasn't constantly hating another. Great happiness filled Hawke from inside as she spotted the dwarf. Over the years he bacame one of her closest and most reliable friends and she was garteful she had met him. Without him, she probably would still be living at Gamlen's flat. She became what she was through his sincere help, even if he wouldn't admit that.

„Also don't want to miss the special magic show?", he said grinning. „Even if the maker himself would forbid it, I would still fight my way through for this!", she replied in her usual humorous manner.

Fenris smiled weakly. Sometimes he wished his relationship with Hawke would also be that light.

Merril now stood before the Eluvian. „If I may have your attention, please?", she began. „Every attention you deserve, Daisy.", Varric responded.

„Right...", she said a bit nervous. „First I want to thank Hawke. Ma' serannas, my friend. Without your help I would never have gotten this far.", she continued.

„Oh, please, All I did was helping you killing a giant spider-like monster. One more monster or less is no big deal, really.", Hawke laughed.

„Still, I am thankful. As you already know I acomplished restoring the function of the Eluvian. It took me time and work but it was worth it. And since you are my friends, I want you to be the first to witness this historical moment." Merrill spoke with such hapiness and pride that nobody dared to object. Varric was the first to speak: „Daisy, are you sure this is not dangerous. You are dealing with magic you basically don't know."

„I am no child, Varric." Merrill looked to the side. Dissapointment was heard in her voice.

„Oh yes, the same thing you have said when you used blood magic, despite knowing its danger and forcing your Keeper to save you by sacrificing herself!", Anders was the one who confronted her with this harsh reality.

Merrill let her gaze slide to the floor, aware of her guilt.

„What Blondie is trying to say is that we are worried. We don't want you to be hurt again, Daisy.", Varric told her warmly. Once again he was playing the daddy for everyone.

A heavy silence sank upon the room. The others seemd to be sharing this opinion and looked at Merrill sceptically.

Hawke looked between everyone, then decided to break the silence. „Oh, come on guys! What's the worst that can happen? Demons? It's not like we never fought against those. If some creepy spirit tries to make trouble we just kick its ass like we always do. Now, Merrill, show us what you have reached through your hard work." She smiled at Merrill encouragingly.

Merrill smiled back and seemed to gain her confidence back.

„Then I shall show you a part of our ancient, lost culure.", she anounced. She positioned herself in front of the Eluvian, pulled her staff and spoke a magic, elvish spell:

 _Ghilan'him banal'vhen, Lassa ghilan_

First nothing happened, but then the surface of the Eluvian began to glow. It iluminated the whole room and blinded Hawke and her companions. Then the glow lessened and the light was broken into a million coulours which began to form a spiral upon the Eluvian's surface. The companions watched in awe. The sight was beautiful, yet intimidating. At this thought Hawke felt something pulling her towards the Eluvian. It was like an invisible, gigantic hand that held her around her waist and was pulling her away. First she thought she was imagining that. Since she became champion she didn't really get a proper sleep. Halucination could be a sign of exhaustion she heard. Then she looked around and saw her friends struggling as much as her to stand their ground. So she came to the conclusion that this was really happening.

„What is this?", Isabela asked clearly terrified. „I don't know...", Merrill brought out under struggle.

„I knew this was a bad idea...", Anders spoke. „Finally a thing we agree on...", replied Fenris while struggling to hold tight to a nearby table.

It was no use. The more they struggled, the more the Eluvian was sucking them in. With a shriek Merrill was the first to be sucked in. „Merrill!", Hawke screamd before she was the next to follow. „HAWKE!", the remaining companions exclaimed before they were also consumed by the hungry, ancient mirror.

Slowly Hawke regained conciousness, but still she couldn't open her eyes. She first heard the birds chirping somewhere in the trees. Then she felt the warmth that was enveloping her body. Her fingers began to twitch trying to feel the material underneath and above. There was no doubt she was laying in a bed. Where, she did not know, but it was for certain not her bed. Then she heard the tinkling of dishes coming from somewhere. Now she regained her strength to open her golden eyes.

She moved her head to the right side and saw Merrill, Isabela and Aveline laying next to her.

Then she moved it to the left and saw Fenris, Aners and Varric as weill laying beside her, sleeping..

She let out a sigh of relieve after seeing her freinds still alive. The next thing she did was trying to sit up. It costed her quite the effort, but she was never the kind of person to easily give in.

She sat up and saw an old woman with pink hair, wearing a red cape aound her shoulders. „So you've finally awoken.", the strange, pink haired woman noted.

Instantly it felt like Hawke regained all of her strength. For some reason she felt alerted.

„Where are we and who are you?", Hawke immediatly asked.

„Pretty impatient, aren't we?", the old woman replied slightly amused.

That was it. Since that Flemeth, Hawke had enough of old ladies dodging her questions by speaking in riddles to her!

„I warn you! Answer me, or I will...", Hawke began her threat.

„Calm down, child! I do not mean any harm, neither to you, nor to your friends.", the woman interrupted her. „But I suggest, we wait until they are also awake. I imagine they as well want to know what happened to them. Until then, how about you tell me who YOU are first." she continued unimpressed.

„They call me Hawke...", Hawke replied trying not to reveal too much information for she didn't really trust the woman.

„Hawke. A beautiful name. Strong and demanding. I am sure it fits you and your fate very well.", the old pink haird lady responded.

„H-", Hawke began. „Before you ask, no, I canot see the furture, but I have seen much and met many people, It was just intuition." once again she interrupted her.

With that the lady returned to her dishes behind her. It looked like she was preparing something, tea it would seem.

In that moment Hawke heard a deep grunt beside her. It was Fenris that began to wake up. Next to him also Varric and Anders slowly woke up. On her other side Isabela and Aveline were already struggling to sit up.

„Andraste's firy knitters, what happened...?", Varric was the first to speak.

„It feels like someone dropped their hammer on my head", Anders moaned.

„Oh man, I had that weird dream about that Elu-thingy going all crazy and sucking us up... Wait, that really happened, didn't it?", Isabela asked confused. It clearly wasn't a situation that she was used to.

„Where did my armour go?",was Aveline's first question. Indeed her armour was gone. She found herself only in her black shirt she normally wore underneath.

„It is here, child.", the pink haird lady said and pointed into the corner where she put Avelines armour. „I needed to take it off of you, in order to check wether you had serious injuries or not.", she explained in her relaxed, almost bored tone.

Everyone now turned their gaze into her direction.

„Who are you?", Anders asked.

„Now that you all have awoken we can talk properly of your current situation. But first, here, drink this.", she offered them a cup of tea that seemed to be made of several herbs, she probably collected in the forest.

Without a second thought, Anders casted a spell to check if the liquid would harm them or not. „I think it is clean.", he stated. The old lady smiled weakly, „It will help you regain your strength.", she added.

They hestitated, but at the end they took each a cup and drank it..

„You mentioned, you were checking on Aveline. Then did you check on all of us?", Hawke asked after taking a few sips from her tea. It tasted surprisingly refershing.

„Yes.", was the woman's simple answer.

„So you're a healer.", Hawke continued.

„Yes.", she replied once again.

„So, are you a mage?", it was Anders who asked.

„That is correct, like you three.", she pointed at Hawke, Merrill and Anders.

„How did you know that.", Merrill finally spoke too.

„Like I told your friend earlier, it was intuition. I have experience.", she replied calmly.

„Great!", Fenris exclaimed. „Another apostate, as if this wasn't enough, we must run into another suspicious whitch!" he hissed pointing at Anders, earning from him an angry look.

The features of the woman hardened. „Whatch your tongue, young man. I was not obliged to help you. I could've as well let you die in the forest. So if you cannot bring up a simple _Thank you_ then keep your mouth shut!", she responded annoyedly.

Fenris' only answer was a disgusted noise, but chose to remain silent otherwise.

Hawke led the lady's attention back to her and their main topic. „You said you found us in the forest. How?", Hawke continued the clarification of their current circumstances.

„I was collecting herbs, as I found you all laying on the ground nearby. I took you all to my place. It is not my way to let people die in the wilds.", she gave Fenris a sharp look. „As for how you got here, I do not know. I just found you."

„And where are we. Is Kirkwall, very far?", Hawke asked further.

„Kirkwall? I am sorry. I do not know of a place called Kirkwall." the lady said.

All of their mouthes fell open at once. How could that be? Wasn't Kirkwall well known in Thedas? It is a big city not some small village behind a mountain.

„Then, in which part of Ferelden are we?", Hawke still tried to get a relieving answer.

„I am afraid, I do not know of Ferelden either.", the pink haired lady said.

Concern was starting to make its way between the companions. If not in any part of Ferelden, where in the maker's name would they be?

Another desperate try. „Then perhaps in Orlais?", Hawke asked with a shaky voice. The lady remained silent, giving them only a questioning look. They knew her answer. No one said anything. They were too afraid of the truth that was now forming in their heads.

„What is the last thing you remember?", the woman now asked.

„I think it was my fault.", Merrill said, breaking her own silence. „What did you do?", the woman continued.

„I was trying to fix an ancient artefact of my people. When I finished my work the Eluvian began to glow and a colourful spiral showed up and then, we were sucked in."

The woman nodded as Merrill finished. It seemed, she have found the answer to their situation.

„Child, I think you were deaing with powers you do not understand. It seems you have opened a portal to another world, a quite unstabil one."

After the woman ended the shock on everyone's faces was not to be overseen.

„Well, shit...", Varric was the only one who managed to say something.

Minutes passed after this shaking revelation in which nobody dared to speak and which seemed like hours.

Hawke was the first to regain her voice:"By the way, we still don't know your name..."

„You can call me Porlyusika." Hawke nodded.

„Now that you have regained your health, you cannot stay anymore." That was unexpected. Everyone looked up. After nursing them back to health was she now letting them down?

„Will you at least tell us where we are and where we can find help?", Isbaela wasn't accepting this turn of fates.

„Of course. I will tell you where we are. The forest belongs to the teritory of the kingdom of Fiore. There is also a city nearby. It's called Magnolia, there you will find aid.", Porlyusika said.

„Will you show us the way?", Aveline asked. „Yes, I will bring you to a friend of mine. There you shall find help.", was Porlyusika's answer.

„You will find your weapons over there. As soon as your are ready, we will be going.", Porlyusika was pointing at the corner, where also Aveline's equipment layed.

Everyone reclaimed what belonged to them: Aveline put on her armour, as well as her sword and shield. Isabela took back her daggers and some of her poisons, Varric was hugging Bianca tightly and Fenris put his breast plat back on as well as his sword. Hawke, Merill and Anders put their staffs on their backs and took as well all the health potions. Afterwards they left Porlyusika's home right behind said woman.

For a while they followed her silently through the forest. It was diffrent from the environment around Kirkwall. Bunches of trees and colourful plants were growing everywhere. Every now and then they spottet a strange animal that disappeard as quickly as it had shown up. But what they noticed the most was the magic energy that was swirling through the forest as if it was its life essence. It was everywhere around them and even felt like it was pouring out from the very ground they were walking on.

Fenris as well felt it and his discomfort grew.

After a while Hawke decided to continue her questioning. „You haven't told us who your friend is."

„His name is Makarov."

„Why are you certain he can help?

„I am not. But he is the master of a mages guild called Fairy Tail. You three are mages. So the best way for you to survive is to join a mages guild. Makarov has a good heart, he will surly try to help you."

Anders immediatly turned his head to Porlyusika. „A guild for mages? You mean there is no Circle of Magi?"

„As I do not know what that is and never heard about it, I assume that there isn't such a thing here."

Anders slowly began to like this place. Fenris on the other hand was hating it more and more. „That is possibly the worst hell we could've stepped into. A world with mages who are running around freely, without being watched, probably practicing blood magic on every ocasion.", was the elf's harsh coment.

Porlyusika ignored him knowingly.

They kept on walking for a time that seemed to be half an hour until they spottet a few houses on an open field. They walked by and after a few minutes they entered the city of Magnolia.

As they walked through it they noticed that it was a thousand times more beautuful than Kirkwall's Hightown would ever be. The streets were colourful, decorated with flowers on every corner. A canal was leading through the city. Sevral boats were floating on it and underneath the bridges which were decorated with beautiful carvings and connected the two sides of the city.

They reached the market place. It was crowdy and loud. Not much diffrent from markets they knew. But what made the difference was that the people were livly and seemed happier.

They passed by a building that looked like a chantry to them. It stood in the center and was appearantly open to everyone. Anders looked at the chantry and noticed that there were no templars around. Not a single, lyrium addicted knight was to be seen. The only armed people he saw were the city guards, but still they were not even half as armed as Kirkwall's city guards.

Porlyusika lead them to the edge of the city, where they saw a small, rather rotten house. As they aproached they saw a shield with the inscrption _Fairy Tail_.

„So this is the guild that will help us?", Varric comented.

„Do not be fooled by the appearance. They have a harsh time behind them. But they have strong mages and they will rise again.", Porlyusika replied confidently.

„If you say so, my lady, it's not like we have a choice.", Varric said.

With that being said they followed Porlyusika into the guild. What they saw wasn't quite what they had expected, especially not Fenris.

There were no robes, no staffs, no demon summoning, no abominations and no blood magc. What they saw were a few people who were dressed casually, just like the people they saw in the market. Some were talking, others were eating and drinking and others were looking at a wall with pinned papers on it. A request board, perhaps.

Porlyusika let her gaze go through the room, Then her features softened as she seemed to have found what she was looking for.

„Porlyusika-san! It has been a long time." A soft voice spoke these words and caused Hawke and her team to turn to the direction where it came from. They saw a young woman of medium height coming to ther direction. She had long white hair and big sparkly blue eyes. The dress she was wearing was almost reaching her ankles and was a dark magenta. She had a tablet in her hands that she put on the table next to her as she aproached the group.

„Ah, Mirajane! It's nice to see you, child.", Porlyusika greeted her.

„I see you have brought friends, that is pretty unusual of you, Porlyusika-san." , the woman of the name Mirajane then noted.

„I found them unconcious in front of my house. But I cannot help them any further. I was believing you could, since you also could use any extra help you can get, right?" Porlyusika continued.

„Of course, after the recent events, we are quite down but you know, if they are really in trouble, we will help without anything in return. But it would be nice, to have more in the team.", Mirajane smiled.

„Then it is decided, you will take them.", Porlyusika determined.

„They are most welcome.", Mirajane replied friendly.

„Then I will take my leave.", Porlyusika said and was turning to leave as Mirajane tried to stop her. „But wait, you just arrived. At least have a drink.", Mirajane was trying to convince her but it was of no use. „No, thank you, child. I had enough of people for today.", and with that she left.

„So, you want to join our guild.", Mirajane turned to Hawke and her companions. Said woman was a bit out of concept. Too much has happened. „Well...", was all she managed to come up with.

„Wait, you are not really going to join this...mage guild.", Fenris spoke.

Hawke collected herself. „Do you have a better idea? We have no choice."

„If you consider joining then let us talk in private over there.", Mirajane pointed at the bar at the end of the room. Hawke nodded. They followed her to said place in between the tables, where those who probably were the other memebrs were sitting. Some of them were comenting on Aveline, obviously pointing at her.

„Do you think she is like Erza?"

„Oh, we certainly could use two Erzas for our lost reputation, right?"

Laughing.

Hearing that Aveline was wondering to herself who that Erza might be.

They reached the bar and Mirajane was the first to speak." I didn't introduce myself. My name is Mirajane Strauss, but you can call me Mira, if you like."

„My name is Hawke and these are my companions."

„Varric Tethras, at your service, my lady." He bowed slightly while introducing himself.

„You can call me Anders."

„Captain Isabela. Well, drop the captain. As long as I have no ship the title is of no use."

„My name is Merrill.", she smiled shyly.

„Aveline Vallen, it is my honor."

„...Fenris..."

„Nice to meet you all.", Mirajane said happily. „Porlyusika-san, was mentioning something about helping you. So what is the problem you need to deal with?", she asked.

„Well, you see it's a crazy story. There was this portal we accidently opened and through it we were thrown into his world...", Hawke explained, uncertain, if she will be branded as insane.

„Oh, I see and you are looking for way to get back home, to your world, right?", Mirajane continued.

„You don't find that weird or crazy?", Varric asked.

„It certainly would be to most people, but we already had experience with such matters, so I believe you. However I am not sure how and if we can help but we will certainly try.", Mirajane replied.

„Just like that?", Varric insisted.

„Well, we would apreciate if the three mages of you would join our guild. We need help to build our guild again. But you also have benefits. A home and a more or less stabile income are part of them.", Mirajane said.

„And what are your conditions on joining the guild?", Varric continued. He was clearly concerned.

„You will have to do some of the jobs, we have on the request board. Which ones you may decide freely. 10 % of you reward goes to the guild, the rest is for you.", Mirajane responded.

„And if one day they decide to leave?", Varric's suspiscion grew.

„You may do so, if you wish to. We will not force you to stay.", was Mirajane's simple reply.

„This can't be this simple...", Varric said. It sounded to good to be true. There must be some bad condition that may cause them problems. But the more he looked at Mirajane's innocent eyes the more he thought she was telling the truth. Perhaps this guild really consisted of people this good. Any way he would remain watchful, for Hawke's, Blondie's and Daisy's sake.

„However I cannot decide, if you will become members or not. Only the guild master can. Unfortunatly he is away. You will have to wait for his return.", Mirajane began to speak again.

„When will that be?", Hawke wanted to know.

„At least this evening. Please sit down, I will bring you something to drink as long as you wai-"

„WE ARE BACK! WE ARE HUNGRY, BRING US FOOOOOOOOD!"

„Aye, sir!"

She was interrupted. A young man entered the guild. He had pink hair and was shouting all over the place.

„Hey, shut up flame barin, can't you see that Mira is busy?", a dark haired young man spoke now.

„And who the hell, asked you, huh, Gray?!", the pink haired boy turned angrily to the dark haired one.

„Natsu, Gray, please stop!", a blonde girl was trying to calm them.

„You are just being stupid!", the dark haired one began again.

„WHO DA'YA CALL STUPID STRIPPER FREAK?!", the pink haired one was getting louder again.

„WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!", that was it, the dark haired one lost all nerves. The two men were starting to punch eachother, first only with fists. Other guild members were trying to stop them. Then they punched everyone to the side and took the tables and chairs instead of their fists.

The other guild members, who agressivly were punched to all sides joined in, instead of calming the two.

All tables flew through the room, randomly trying to hit someone.

Hawke and her team stood confused in front of the crowd that appeared to consist of mages.

Some other dark haired guy was shouting „SALAMANDER, YOU WILL PAY!", turning one of his armes into a thick metal stick, aiming at the pink haired guy.

Another, tall one, who could've easily gone through as a hornless Qunari shouted something of being a real man.

„Oh no, not again.", Mirajane exclaimed. This appearntly happened often in this guild.

Another woman aproached them. She had scarlet red hair and sharp brown eyes. The upper part of her body was covered in a thick armour, while on the lower part she only wore a short, blue skirt and leather boots.

„Good to see you again, Mira-chan.", she smiled. She seemed not be touched in the slightest by the brawl that was taking place right behind her.

„Oh, Erza-san.", Mirajane replied.

So this was that Erza the other guys earlier spoke of, Aveline thought. Come to think of it, if she is a member of the guild, then it meant she was a mage. But she wore armour and looked like a warrior. Aveline was sure her magic abilities were rather interesting.

„I see we have guests." Erza said calmly.

„Yes, These are Hawke and her friends. Perhaps, they will join the guild.", Mirajane informed her.

„Oh I see, I would be happ-", a chair hit her at her head

„My name is Erza, nice to-" a part of a table hit her, still she tried to remain collected.

Maker's breath, this woman seemed to be unbreakable.

„I'm looking forward to-" another chair hit her. Now She lost it.

„THAT'S ENOUGHT, YOU PUNKS! KANSOU!", in a burst of magical energy she changed armour and suddenly held a weapon in her hand. She threw herself into the crowd and cleared a part of it with only one strike of her sword.

Aveline's eyes widened. Her freinds were as well impressed as scared and surprised.

But the brawl didn't come to an end. Now the pink haired guy and his dark haired guildmate activated their magic powers. A flash of heat as well as one of cold went through the room. The two men collided, causing an explosion that destroyed all the tables and chairs around them or rather what was remaining of them.

„Stupid mages...", Fenris thought to himself, watching this.

Still the crowd didn't want to dissolve until a deep, thrusty voice shouted „ENOUGH, BRATS!" The voice appeared to belong to an old man.

While shouting a gigantic hand flashed onto the floor, causing the quarreling mages to send them flying in every corner of the room.

Immediatly the hand shrank and Hawke and her friends saw that it belonged to a very short old man, who was standing in the entrance. Next to him was another guy. He was tall and had blonde hair. On one eye he had a scar that looked like lightning. He sighed, „Jeez...".

The short man walked into the room. He began to speak:

„Now look what you have done to our poor guild, as if it wasn't broken enough. You fools always need to solve yor problems with violence, don't you?"

Suddenly all of the mages who took part at the brawl bowed before him, apologizing sincerely about the damage they have caused.

Could this man be...

He aproached Mirajane and Hawke. „And also you have scared our guests. In the name of the guild I apologize. The brats are young and still hot tempered. I am Makarov, the guild master."

Hawke looked down at the short man. He was really short, Even Varric was taller and he was a dwarf.

„I am Hawke, pleased to meet you."

„Hawke and her friends want to join the guild. Porlyusika-san found them and brought them here. It appears they had some trouble with a magic portal and they accidently landed here.", Mirajane informed him.

„So you are from another world?", Makarov asked.

„Yes.", Hawke said.

„And I assume you want to go home?", Makarov asked.

Hawke nodded.

„Master, they need our help.", Mirajane insisted.

„Alright then, we will help you. Welcome to the guild Hawke-san."

„Wait, what? Just like that, no task or request before you will take them in?", Varric once again showed his concern. That was all too easy. „There must be something you want from us!", Varric stated.

„No. We don't want anything from you. You came to us, because you seeked help. You have no other place to go to. And you have decided to join our guild. That's enough reason to help.", Makarov explained.

„But that doesn't make any sense!", Varric replied. „I must agree.", Isabela said.

„Let me tell you something. I don't know about your world, but we have a principle. The guild is not only a guild. It is a family, a family to those who have none, or nowhere to go. And as a family we help our members with everything we can, unconditionally. We don't care what you were before or what mistakes you did. It only matters what you do now and when you do anything to make it better we will be there to back you up. Because that is what it means to be a part of Fairy Tail. That is the meaning of being a Fairy Tail mage!"

Hawke and her companions were utterly speechless. Who would have known that they will find such kindness among free mages.

„So, are you with us?", Makarov asked.

Hawke looked at Anders. He nodded. She then turned to Merrill she seemed sure about this as well.

„But what about those who are not mages?", Hawke wanted to know.

„Are they your friends?", Makarov asked.

„Of course!", Hawke said.

„Then they are welcome as well. Your Companions are our companions, too.", Makarov replied.

Everyone from the guild gathered around them, awaiting Hawke's reply.

„Then we are happy to be a part of Fairy Tail.", Hawke said.

Cheering and clapping were heard among the other members, expressing their happiness about their new fellow mages.

Erza smiled at them encouragingly. Mirajane did the same. The pink haired boy from earlier came to them. He offered Hawke a hand.

„Welcome to Fairy Tail."


	2. A cat for Anders

Hello, everybody! After seeing that you quite liked the first chapter here is now the second chaper. I hope you like this one as well. Note: I chose "Charle instead of "Carla" because in the anime they pronounce it as Shalulu and I think it's mor plausible that the intended name was Charle. Also I had this head canon about Wynne being Anders' mentor, since they were in the same circle, so please don't be confused :D And to the last chapter I wanted to point out that I am not too stupid to make apropriate sections which fit with the changing settings. There were only problems with the document I uploaded and the manager just put everything together and it wasn't possible to edit it. Anyway, enough talk, enjoy the second chaper of this crossover.

„Welcome to Fairy Tail.", the pink haired young man said. „I'm Natsu Dragneel. Nice to meet you!" He offered Hawke a hand. She slowly took it. „Hawke.", she returned his welcome and smiled at him.

„Aye, and I'm Happy!" A blue cat appeared and to Hawke's surprise it was talking and … flying? She rubbed her eyes only to make sure that those white things that grew from its back were really wings. The cat whose name appearantly was Happy grinned widely at her. The name sure suited it.

„Do you have fish?", Happy asked then. Before answering anything Hawke heard a loud gasp next to her. She turned, only to see Anders standing paralayzed in front of Happy. He stared at the cat with wide eyes. His mouth fell open. Hawke looked at him suspiciously. „Hey Anders, are you okay...?", she asked.

Suddenly he seemed to regain his mobility. Slowly he moved towards Happy. The cat also noticed that something was off about Anders. Its wide smile dissapeard and it was attempting to fly away. But before turning around Anders grabbed the poor cat and pulled it close to him.

The cat trembeled. „N-Natsu...I'm scared..."

„You have every reason to...", finally Fenris spoke again but all he got was an angry look from Hawke.

„What? It's true...", Fenris justified himself. Hawke answered with a desperate sigh.

„How?", Anders found his voice again

„W-What?",the intimidated cat asked.

„Huh, never seen a cat?", Natsu asked him.

„Of course I've seen cats! But none of them spoke or...flew!"

Hawke and the others agreed in silence. And they thought the brawling mage guild was weird enough.

„Well, I can do those. Now let me go!", Happy shouted desperatly.

Anders ignored him. He proceeded to speak with Natsu.

„Where...Where do I get those?", Anders asked.

„Oh, you also want one?", Natsu laughed.

„Hey, this is no time to be laughing, Natsu!", Happy shouted now louder.

„Yes, Yes, I really want one!", Anders nodded agressivley and determined, pushing Happy even tighter to his chest.

„NATSU, HELP! I CAN'T BREATH! HE IS KILLING ME!", Happy struggled to get rid of Anders.

Finally Anders let go of the cat and it flew straight back to Natsu. „Oh, I'm sorry , little one. It's just that I really love cats.", Anders apologized.

„Keep your love far away from me!", Happy answered.

„I kind of like this cat...", Fenris said in a low voice.

„Hey Happy, don't be so impolite to our new members!", Natsu scolded him.

„As if you knew what politness meant!", Happy responded harshly. However, due to his high pitched voice and the fact that he was a cat, it was rather cute.

Hawke and her friends smiled at this scene, mostly because the cat seemed to be smarter than Natsu.

„Happy, Natsu's right. You shouldn't be so rude." A deep voice spoke these words. At that Happy just took his leave. Everyone turned around. Anders nearly fell unconcious because of the happiness that flooded him. There was another cat and it was talking too. It was black and had a scar at its left eye. The deep voice didn't quite match with the tiny body. But Anders didn't care. He just wanted to cuddle it.

„But that doesn't mean you can hug me to death!", the black cat proceeded insecurely. „Damn right, man.", a guy with dark hair next to the black cat said.

His hair was long, his gaze wild. He wore only black and his body was decorated with several metalic piercings.

„I am Gajeel, by the way, and this guy here is Pantherlily.", he introduced himself. Anders hold himself back from Pantherlily after this introduction, mostly because Gajeel didn't look like an easy oponent. Anders inhaled deeply and then exhaled, to regain control over his emotions.

„I am Anders.", he responded. Gajeel nodded.

„So, can you tell me where to get one of these lovely cats?", Anders asked Gajeel.

„You don't get them. You befriend them. They are not pets. Got it?", was his response.

This threw Anders out of concept a bit. He just nodded slowly.

Before the situation could turn any more awekward, Hawke stepped in.

„Oh where are my manners. You already know my name but I forgot to introduce my friends. Well, you already know Anders...", she then turned to the others. „...and these are Merrill..." Merill gave them in an insecure smile. „...Varric..." He grinned widely. „...Aveline..." She nodded, smiling friendly. „...Isabela..." Said woman greeted them with a wicked smile. „...and Fenris..." No reaction from the elf.

When observing their reactions Hawke noticed that they seemed to like Merril the most. They made no secret out of the fact that they found her cute, especially the males, which caused the elven maiden to blush timidly. She wasn't used to that kind of attention.

Hawke couldn't help but grin slightly.

„Nice to meet you. I am Lucy." The blonde girl who tried to calm Natsu and the other guy introduced herself. She smiled friendly and also offered Hawke a hand. „I hope you like it here and that we will get along well." she added.

„Oh, I totally love it!", Anders exclaimed still staring at Pantherlily.

The dark haired guy who was fighting with Natsu also came to speak.

„And I am Gray. Welcome.", he said, It was only then that they noticed that he was naked. Merrill blushed deeply and Hawke and the others understood why Natsu was refering to him as „Stripper Freak" earlier.

„Go get some pants, idiot!", Lucy screamed.

„You wanna ruin this moment, Stripper Freak?", Natsu now turned to him angrily.

„Did you call me that again, Flame Brain?!", Gray turned to Natsu and began to become louder, when just in that moment Erza stepped before the two of them.

„Hey! Would you two cut it out already?!", Erza said with a deep, threatening voice that even gave Aveline the chills. Erza sure wasn't a woman you disobeyed...and survived afterwards.

Instantly the two became frightened and pretended to get along well just to please Erza, whispering a pathetic „Yes" at once.

Hawke wished she could get Anders and Fenris under control like that.

Now the master stepped back into the center of the crowd, He cleared his throught to get the attention of everyone. Then he started to speak:

„Now that that has been clarified, you know what comes next for our new members, right?"

So there was something this guild wanted from them! Varric was right after all. This wasn't as easy as they made it look.

They saw him grinning a big, cocky smile under his moustache. Varric's suspicion turned into another big surprise as the master climbed on the bar and yelled:

„A BIG WELCOME PARTY FOR OUR NEW COMPANIONS!"

Loud cheering was heared from everyone. Once again Hawke and her friends stood utterly confused and speechless in between the mages, except for Isabela.

For her it meant she got to drink a lot of alcohol and that was something she loved and she did not hide it.

„Then I hope there is some good beer here!", she laughed, but nearly jumped to the roof the next moment. Suddenly she heard a female voice behind her shout: „Booze for everyone!"

Isabela quickly turned around to see a brunette woman climb from behind the bar counter and on top of it. Her eyes were dark purple and sparkled with excitement. Her skin was tanned and her cheeks redened. Isabela concluded that she was already drunk. She wore only a black bra, decorated with white lace and brown pants which reached slightly under her knees. The guild crest could be seen on the lower, left part of her stomach. In her right hand she held up a bottle of beer and she was smiling happily at Isabela. Said woman smiled back and walked over to her.

„Well, hello, dear, What is someone like you doing at a mage guild?", Isabela asked cockily. She already liked that woman without knowing her.

„Why don't I show you while we drink a few bottles of this fine booze?", the brundette answered and held up her bottle a bit higher.

„Fair enough.", Isabela said. „By the way, I'm Isabela.", she added while the other was climbing from the counter.

„And my name is Cana.", the brunette said. And with that they walked off to a nearby table.

Time passed and the Fairy Tail mages got to know Hawke and her companions better during the party.

For instance they learned that Aveline was the leader of the city guard in their home and that Varric was a merchant and a storyteller. Of course they begged him to tell them one of his stories. At first he refused still quite insecure about this guild. But when he found himself surrounded by several mages he gave up and told them one of his „modified stories" about Hawke. In that one she forgot her staff at home and had to fight ten dragons with a broken wine bottle. The mages listened to that in awe, comenting that they had luck getting someone so powerul for their guild.

Near the crowd Hawke sighed annoyed. She never understood why he made her the protagonist of his stories and told these lies to everyone.

Hawke then glanced to where Cana and Isabea were sitting. She saw that they already emptied quite a lot of bottles and were laughing out loud.

Her expression hardened as she stood up, but was then stopped by Lucy and Mirajane.

„Is something the matter?", Lucy asked.

„Oh, I'm just concerned. I need to stop Isabela from letting your friend drink herself into a coma.", Hawke explained.

„Don't worry about that, Cana already is a passionate drinker.", Mirajane comented. „I think it's more likely that Isabela finds herself under the table if she tries to keep up with Cana.", Mirajane then added and pulled Hawke back to the table.

„True that!", Lucy laughed.

Next to them Aveline and Erza were talking about their favorite kinds of armour and how swords should be forged.

Erza answered all of Aveline's questions about her magic which involved changing armour and weapons according to your current situation and Erza listened with excitement to Aveline's stories about her time as a soldier and her current work as captain of her city's guard.

Meanwhile Merrill stood in the middle of the guild, feeling rather out of place.

„Hey, why aren't you with the others?", a soft voice asked this question. Merrill turned to her right side to see a girl about her height, smiling brightly at her. She had blue hair that reached her shoulders. It was quite messy and she held it out of her face with a orange hair band. She had big brown eyes and fair skin. Her body was lithe and she covered it with a short orange dress. Merrill was usually used to humans who were taller than her, seeing ones with her or under her height made her feel kind of strange.

„I...", Merrill tried to give a satisfying answer, but was not given the chance. „I am Levy.", the other girl said and grabbed her by her wrist and pulled her over to Hawke, Lucy and Mirajane.

Another white haird girl aproached them. „Mira-nee, I'm sorry, I was busy with those.", she said while pointing into Varric's direction. She appearantly served them a new round of drinks and was happy to sit with them. „I'm so sorry, I totally forgot. Hawke-san, Aveline-san this is my little sister, Lisanna."

„Very pleased.", Aveline responded.

„Nice to meet you, Lisanna.", Hawke said while looking at her. Come to think of it the resemblence was quite obvious. They both had white hair and big blue colour and shape of their skin was also similiar.

Suddenly Hawke remembered Bethany. The days they spent when they were children and the last days they spent in Lothering, before the blight reached their village. Hawke's smile faded.

She was suddenly torn out of her thoughts, when she heard Lisanna's voice directed at her. „Is everythibg alright?", she asked.

Hawke looked up and tried to smile at Lisanna. „Oh yes, everything is just fine...", she tried to laugh, but everyone knew it was fake. Aveline looked at her concerned. She remembered Bethany. It was just a few minutes, an hour at best in which she had known the mage, but still, remebering how she passed away even hurt her.

The women decided not to bother Hawke further about her mood. They sensed that it may be a painful memory she didn't want to talk about.

Unwillingly Hawke also remembered Craver. She wonderd if he was alright with the Grey Wardens. Eventhough they never got along she still cared for him.

„A real man! A real man doesn't accept such a fate!"

The women looked to the direction where the voice came from. It was the table where Anders was sitting with Grey, Natsu, Gajeel and their cats. A huge guy with white hair stood in front of them and looked like he was holding a speech.

„I know right!", Anders agreed. From that Hawke concluded that he was talking about the opression of the mages in their world.

„Just get over yourself. This doesn't have anything to do with being a man!", Gajeel comented. The others laughed.

„And a man can also take this rejection...", the huge guy said.

„Elf-nii-chan...", Lisanna smiled weakly.

„Elf?", Hawke asked. „He doesn't look like an Elf to me!", she continued.

„It's just his nickname, his full name is Elfman.", Mirajane said, as if this sounded any more logical.

„MAN!", Elfman shouted.

„Wha...?", Hawke started,

„Our brother just values true manliness very much.", Lisanna laughed,

„Oh, he's your brother?", Hawke asked surprised.

„Yes. Mira-nee is the oldest of us, then comes Elfman and I am the youngest.", Lisanna responded.

„I see...", Hawke mumbled.

„You think about Carver, don't you?", Aveline asked openly.

„I just wonder if he is fine right now. Being a Warden isn't easy.", she answerd Aveline's question.

„Your brother?", Mirajane wanted to make sure.

Hawke nodded.

„Well, then I'm sure he is alright, If his sister defeated ten dragons with a broken wine bottle he sure is a fighting talent, too!", Mirajane reassured.

Hawke smiled weakly by hearing Varric's lie Mirajane was refering to.

„So why is he called Elf? He isn't an elf, is he?"; Merrill finally managed to say.

„Of course not. Elves aren't real.", was Lisanna's simple answer. Hawke, Merrill and Aveline became silent. They stared at Lisanna. Was she serious? But come to think of it they didn't see any elves or dwarves in the city, when they came here. Was is it possible that in this world elves simply didn't exist?

„Did I say something wrong?", Lisanna now asked nervously, noticing the abrupt silence.

„But I am en elf.",Merrill answered.

„What?", Lucy asked surprised.

„But wasn't that obvious? I have pointy ears.", Merrill continued.

„We didn't think that was of importance. There are a lot of people who happen to have pointy ears here, but they aren't elves.", Mirajane comented. Merrill's mouth fell open. „Perhaps I shouldn't have told you...", Merrill muttered.

„Why? Does that change anything?", Lucy asked.

„Well, I'm not exactly human...", Merrill tried to explain.

„But you are still Merrill, right? It doesn't actually matter. And you don't look so different from us. Also, look at Happy and Pantherlily. They are also our friends, eventhough they are cats.", Lucy reassured and smiled at her encouragingly. So did everyone else.

„So that means, the other one, Fenris, is also en elf?",Levy tried to conclude. Hawke nodded.

„That's correct.", she confirmed.

„By the way, why is he sitting all alone in that corner?", Erza now asked, looking into the elf's direction.

At a lonely table there sat Fenris, a cup of beer in his hands. However he didn't really look like he wanted to drink it anytime soon. He just stared at it, as if he was thinking intensly about something, trying to find the answer in his beer.

Hawke stood up and walked over to him. As she stood right in front of him he finally looked up. He gasped slightly. With her beauty she always managed to bring him out of concept. Her hair reached her shoulders and was bound together behind her back. She had incredible golden eyes, always reminding him of honey when he looked at them. Decorating her right eye there was a tattoo, like waves swirling around it making her look like one of those whitches of the wilds he occasionally heard of. Her skin was tanned and her lips were full, painted in a redish brown that suited her dark skin colour just perfectly.

„Will you stay here alone all the time? Come, join the rest of us.", she said then. Her voice teared him from his thoughts. He blinked then a few times before answering :

"I'm perfectly fine on my own."

„Fenris, this is a party to welcome us. They want to talk to you.", she said.

„And why would I talk with mages?", he then asked bitterly and regreted it the next moment as he noticed Hawke's hurt expression. She always had it when he was condemning all mages in general and he always forgot that she also was a mage. „I...forgive me. I think it's all a bit too much. I'm coming with you.", he tried to correct his mistake. Appearantly it worked. Hawke smiled again and he followed her to her table.

At the other table Anders was still talking about Thedas and especially Kirkwall. Natsu, Gray, Gajeel and Elfman listened, while Happy and Pantherlily were sitting on the table and drank a glass of juice each of them.

„Sounds like your place sucks, huh?",Gajeel comented.

„That still sounds pretty nice if you refer to Kirkwall.", Anders said.

„If you hate it then stay here, we don't have this crap.", was Natsu's simple reply.

„I'd love to but I don't think that it is that simple.", Anders said.

„We'll have to find out then.", Natsu insisted.

„You haven't told us what kind of magic you use, Anders.", Gray then said. By now he was wearing at least some pants but remained shirtless. On the left side of his chest the guild crest was largely tattooed in dark blue on it. The other guys had it mostly on their arms or in Elfamn's case on the left side of his neck. Anders wondered if all guild members had it perished then the though as he remebered Gray's question.

„What do you mean?", he asked insecure.

„Well, your specialization of course. I, for example, am an Ice Mage which means I use only Ice Magic.", Gray tried to help him.

„Do you all use a specific kind of magic?", Anders asked further. Everyone nodded. Natsu was the first to introduce his magic to him.

„I'm a Fire Dragon Slayer and use Fire Dragon Slayer Magic.", he exclaimed but that was all a bit too much for Anders.

„Does that mean you obtained your magic by killing a Dragon?", he proceeded.

„No, I was raised by a dragon and he taught me everything I know..", Natsu anounced proudly. Anders' mouth fell open.

„You are telling me you were raised by a dragon? And he taught you magic?", Anders asked unbelivingly.

„You are kidding me right?"

„No, it's true.", Gajeel then told him. Anders turned to him.

„I'm a Dragon Slayer, too, and like Natsu a dragon taught me, except for the fact that my dad was a Metal Dragon. So it follows that I'm a Metal Dragon Slayer.", the black haird mage explained further.

Anders tried to take in the information. So he had mages sitting before him that learned from dragons and their magic is specifically made for slaying dragons. That kind of made sense. The best way to kill a dragon ist to defeat him with his own power. Anders silently decided that he would never want to fight these two, eventhough they were obviously younger.

He nodded slowly and then turned to Elfman.

„And what kind of mage are you?", he asked cautiously.

„I'm a form shifter. I have developed a few powerful forms I switch into when I need to.", Elfman answered. Anders let out a sigh of relieve. At least there was one mage who used a magic known to him.

„You still didn't answer my question.", Gray threw in.

„O-Of course. I guess I'm a healer. I use healing magic the most, though I do know a bit of fire and ice." He tried to laugh, but was still impressed by the Dragon Slayers.

"That is nice, We can certainly use another healer.", Elfman said.

„Another?", Anders asked. Elfaman nodded.

„Yes, we have a good healer with us. Her name is Wendy. But she has the day off today so you can meet her tomorrow."

„And here I thought I could be of special use...", Anders mumbled,but was heard by Gajeel.

„Don't worry. You can never have enough healers. You've seen what happened today. Poor Wendy has then too much work, healing all of us. Another healer who can put us back together is most welcome."

Fenris now sat with Hawke and the other women. He listened to them discussing different kinds of magic and asked Hawke and Merrill what they used.

Both exchanged a look. How would they react to Merrill's blood magic he wondered. Perhaps he'll never know. Merrill was sure naive but not stupid.

„I use Nature Magic.", she then responded.

„I heard of that magic. Does that mean you can make trees move and grow plants?", Levy asked. A very curious mage.

„Well kind of...", Merrill comented.

„And you, Hawke-san?", Mirajane asked.

„I guess you can say I'm an elemental type. I use spells based on fire and ice, but I have also lightning and earth magic.", she tried to explain.

„Impressive. You really are a powerful mage!",Lucy exclaimed.

„Actually that's more basic magic.", Hawke tried to escape the attention.

„But such mages who use combinatiosn of these things are rare. They often specialize on one element.", Lucy explained.

Fenris fought the urge to run away. He felt like he has returned to Tevinter and was listening to a conversation of a bunch of magisters.

„By the way. You didn't tell us your first name.", Erza noticed.

„I hardly imagine that Hawke is your first name"

„Right,I forgot. In our society you introduce yourself with your family name. My first name is Amal. You can call me that if you like.", she explained.

„Amal. That's a beautiful name.", Erza comented. Amal smiled at that.

Suddenly they heard the main door fall open.

„We are home!", a child's voice anounced. Everyone looked to the door. A woman with green hair next to a black haird man stood there. In front of them stood Makarov with a little girl sitting on his shoulders. Appearantly she was the one who anounced their comeback.

The little girl had dark, greenish hair which was braided behind her back. She wore a brown hat and had bright brown eyes. She first looked around to everyone, smiling widely. But suddenly she stopped and seemed to spot something that caught her attention. She climbed from Makarov's back and walked to Hawke's table. She looked between Merrill and Fenris.

The latter felt increasingly uncomfortable under the checking gaze of the small mage. He felt the power sleeping within her.

Her concentraited gaze turned back into a bright smile as she exclaimed:

„FAIRIES!"

The guild was dead silent but the girl wasn't impressed by that in the slightest.

„Mom, Dad! Look! He is a real Fairy!", she said proudly while falling around Fenri's neck, hugging him tightly.

Before he knew what exactly was happening everyone burst out in loud laughter and the girl didn't intend to let go of him anytime soon.

Anders was lying under the table of laughter. Isabela was already laughing loudly and became even louder. Hawke and Aveline weren't any different. Varric was the first to regain his breath:

„Such a lovely, broody fairy..."

„Shut up, dwarf...", was all he managed to say bitterly. Then he wanted to get rid of the small mage but when he saw her smiling at him like that he couldn't do anything. Instead he started to tremble slightly.

„Asuka-chan, why do you think Fenris-san is a fairy?", Lucy asked, still laughing a bit. In response the girl released her grip around Fenris' neck and reached to her backpack, remained sitting on his lap however.

She old up a purple book with the title „The Secret of the Fairies".

„Beacuse of this. Look at his ears, he looks exactly like the fairies here in the book.", she explained proudly and turned back to her parents:

„See? I knew they are real."

The book was appearantly one about fairy tales. The fairy on the cover, in fact, had pointy ears like Merrill and Fenris. And on top of that it had also white hair, just like Fenris.

Anders was still laughing his lungs out as Fenris regained control over his body and turned to him:

„Shut up already, abomination!", he said angrily.

He noticed then that a small hand was pulling at his clothes. It was Asuka:

„Say, Fairy-nii-chan, do you really make wishes come true?"

Fenris' expression hardened, then he spoke slowly:

"I am not a fairy."

The little girl suddenly let go of him. Her hapiness turned to dissapointment when her father finally walked to Fenris and put her off his lap.

„Asuka, how many times I told you you shouldn't just hug someone you don't know?", he scolded his daughter.

Asuka looked to the ground.

„Yes, Dad. I'm sorry.", she obeyed sadly, looking to the ground, then bowed slightly to Fenris and also apologized to him. His eyes widened in surprise. He wasn't used to that behaviour.

„There we go again...", Varric said observing the situation.

Anders gave Fenris an annoyed look and Isabela was mumbling something that sounded like spoilsport. It wasn't that clear due to the high alcoholic influence. Hawke now turned to Fenris:

„You see what you've done?" She pointed at Asuka. Fenris wanted to say something but her father spoke first.

„No, miss, it's really not his fault. Asuka's sometimes too straight forward."

„That's right." His wife stepped beside him. „We are trying to teach her to respect someone's privacy."

The little girl looked like she was about to cry. When Merrill saw this she went to her and kneeled before her, trying to look her in the eyes.

„Don't be sad, he ist just in a bad mood today. I can be your fairy if you want."

Asuka looked then at Merrill, a small smile appeared on her face. She nodded and hugged Merrill tightly.

„Yes, a blood fairy..", Anders comented.

„Shut up, Blondie. You are not any better than Broody this way.", Varric cut him off.

„Thank you for your compassion, but it's bed time for her anyway." Her mother took her from Merrill's arms.

„But more importantly, what is this fuzz about?", she asked, looking around and noticing all the empty beer bottles.

„Ah, right. We are having a party for our new members.", Makarov informed them.

„Al, Bisca these are Hawke-san and her companions.", he introduced them. Hawke stood up. „My pleasure..."

RAM!

Something or rather someone fell loudly to the ground. Hawke quickly turned around only to discover it was Isabela. Appearantly she had too much booze.

Cana was kneeling next to her, trying to help her stand up.

„C'mon, Isabela. We only had 5 barrels of booze and you are already down?", she told her as if this amount was almost nothing.

„We need to let her rest.", Aveline suggested.

„Aveline's right. Rivaini urgenty needs a bed.", Varric agreed.

That's when Hawke remembered. They had nowhere to stay. She opened her mouth to say something. Mirajane stepped to her side.

„You have nowhere to stay, right?", she asked. Hawke turned her face to her.

„Uh, no."

„Well, then you can stay at Fairy Hills.", Mirajane offered. When she saw Hawkes questioning gaze she continued:

„It's the guild's dormitory. It is for members only. Normally we demand a rent but for you it's free for the time being."

„Thank you, Mirajane, but I'll come up with something." Hawke tried to deny the offer. They will cause them enough problems and work in the future anyway.

Mirajane shook her head.

„Don't be stubburn, Amal. You stay here.", Mirajane insisted. She sounded demanding.

Hawke turned to her friends to hear their opinions but they seemed to agree with Mirajane.

„Hawke, I think Mirajane's offer is the best we can get. Don't turn it down.", was Varric's advice. So she agreed to stay at Fairy Hills.

The night came quickly and as the moon shined up high in the sky, acompanied by the sparkling stars Mirajane lead Hawke and her companions to the dormitory. Aveline and Hawke were carrying Isabela to their chambers, up the hills and the stairs in the dorm.

Mirajane found them two chambers: one for the women and the other would be for the men, From her they learned that the dorm is more precisely for female guild members only, but they could make an exception for them.

The chamber for the women was neither too small nor too big. It was big enough that each of the women could have her personal space more or less. There were four beds for each of them and right next to the entrance was another door, probably leading to the chamber's bathroom.

Aveline and Hawke carefully placed Isabela on one of the beds. She was still mumbling unclear sentences when they sat her up and gave her a glass of water to drink. Afterwards she instantly layed down and immediatly fell asleep.

„At least we are done with this problem.", Aveline hissed, giving the sleeping pirate a disgusted look.

„If there isn't anything more you need then I wish you all a good night.", Mirajane said and was about to retreat.

„Thank you, Mirajane. We don't need anythng further.", Hawke smiled at her and with that the white haired woman turned around and left, heading towards her own chamber.

„Well, that was an interesting day, right?", Hawke began.

„Who would have known that there is another world besides ours.", Aveline said.

„I'd still prefer if we would find a way back to our own!", Fenris argued.

„I'm sorry, it's my fault...", Merrill tried to apologize.

„Yes, it's all your fault. If you just gave that damn mirror up, none of this would have happened and you would still have your clan. But no, let's do some blood magic and ignore all the warnings!", Fenris was close to exploding.

„Broody, please...", Varric unseccessfully tried to calm the enraged elf, but it was of no use.

„I actually like it here. We don't have to move so quickly.", Anders spoke.

„Oh, of course you like this, abomination-"

„CUT IT OUT! BOTH OF YOU!", Hawke yelled. It wasn't actually her nature but she was too exhausted to deal with these two.

„We are all tired, okay? So let's go to sleep for now!"

„But-", Fenris began, but was interrupted.

„Varric?", Hawke turned now to Varric and her look was all he need to understand.

„On it.", he said and grabbed Anders and Fenris at their arms and dragged them out of the room.

„Well, ladies. Good night.", Varric left and with him Fenris and Anders. The two were still insuting eachother while they were brought away. Varric tried to silence them.

„Broody, it's bed time now. You are waking everyone up, so Shh. Blondie the same goes for you!" And with that the door fell shut and the three men dissappeard, leaving a mentally and physically exhausted Hawke behind.

She let out a sigh of relieve and let herself fall onto one of the beds. She needed this, more than anything right now.

The next day Hawke woke up rather late, It was alsmost noon, when she walked to the guild house. When she had woken up Aveline and Merrill were already gone. Only Isabela was still laying in her bed, snorting loudly.

The guild house was already full. Like yesterday, many mages stood in front of the request bord, probably choosing their jobs for today. She looked a bit around and found her friends sitting at a round table. Merrill saw her first and waved at her. Hawke made her way to them and was welcomed with warm laughter.

„Finally awake, champion?", Varric asked jokingly. More laughing. Even Fenris was with them, eventhough rather silent. She smiled at him and he nodded in response. He really hated this place. If he could he would just run off, but he had nowhere to go.

„Should I bring you breakfast?", Mirajane asked her.

„Oh no, thanks. I'll just skip the breakfast today. I'm not hungry anyway."; Hawke denied. She was starting to feel bad for Mirajane. Eversince they arrived she was playing the mom for them.

„But you have to eat something. Or at least have a coffee.", she insisted. Hawke smiled: „Then a coffee will be enough for now."

A few minutes later Hawke had a warm cup of coffee in her hands and took a sip. How she loved coffee. She then spoke to Mirajane:

„So as Fairy Tail mages we have to do the jobs on the request bord, right?"

„That's correct.", Mirajane responded

„Any job?", Hawke asked.

„Any job you like and find suitable for you.", Mirajane replied.

Hawke nodded, drank up her coffee and stood up.

„Anders, Merrill, let's go to work!"

„Wait!", Mirajane exclaimed. They turned to her and gave her a puzzled look.

„I forgot something...", she started. „Before you go on your first job you need the guild crest.", she explained.

„You mean like Gray and the others?", Anders asked. Mirajane nodded.

„What do you mean?", Merrill asked.

„Didn't you notice? All the guild members have the guild crest on some part of their bodies."

„Wait a second, are you saying we will have to tattoo the guild crest on our bodies?", Hawke asked. Mirajane chuckled.

„No, it won't be that painful. You will have a magic tattoo.", she said and went behind the bar counter. They saw that she was searching for something. When she found it she returned.

„This is a magic stamp. The paint on it is magical and can't be removed with ordinary ways, with water or something like that. So it's more or less permanent.", she explained.

„So we will carry the guild crest forever around?", Hawke asked.

„Of course there is a spell if you want it removed.", Mirajane reassured.

„But why do we need this?", Hawke demanded to know.

„To show it to the customer so they know that you are from Fairy Tail.", Mirajane answered. „So on which body part and which colour do you wish the guild crest to be?"

They thought for a moment. Anders was the first who decided:

„I want it in a greenish blue, so that it suits the rest of my outfit and on the upper right arm please."

He pulled his right sleeve up, so that his arm was fully revealed and Mirajane put the stamp on the upper part after she sank it into the right colour pot. Immediatly it appeard on his arm and suited the rest of his appearance quite well.

After that Hawke has also decided. She wanted it on her upper left arm and her preferd colour was a deep red.

Finally Merrill also decided and she received hers in dark green on the back of her right hand.

„There you go, you three. Now evryone can recognize you as our members.", Mirajane laughed.

The three mages made their way to the request bord. For a few minutes they stood before it, examining the jobs. There weren't many, but enough. Some were babysitting jobs, others were about helping out in a restaurant. Like for what did these people need mages? It's not like you need magic to distribute flyers.

Then Hawke found one that appeared to be suitable. It basically said that a healer was needed and the reward also seemed pretty good.

„How about this one?", she attempted to show it to Anders as she noticed that something else was pulling at the paper. Hawke looked down and spotted a little girl who also wanted to take the paper. She was around 12 or 13, had long blue hair and shiny brown eyes.

„I'm sorry...", the girl began.

„Were you taking the job, little girl?", Hawke asked. Something within her wanted to protect her.

„Actually yes, but I think you were first so...", the girl wasn't instisting on keeping it.

„If you really want to take it it's okay. But aren't you a bit too young to work for a mage guild?", Hawke sounded concerned and wondered if the girl was a mage at all. The conversation drew the attention of Merrill an Anders. They walked to Hawke and looked in surprise to the little girl who hold the request that Hawke chose.

„What a cute little human.", Merrill said.

„What are you dong here, child? This is no playground, you know!", Anders warned. Like, what was this child thinking.

„Whatch your words, young man!", a sharp, high pitched voice said. When they searched for it they saw a white cat who flew to the girl's side.

„Another speaking cat!", Anders exclaimed in sheer excitement and was attempting to grab it.

The cat noticed that and warned him:

„Don't you dare lay a finger on me!", she said threatening. Anders gave the cat a dissapointed look, but followed the order. Observing the cat he noticed that it was wearing a dress. So this was female cat.

„Charle.", the girl said. That was probably the cat's name.

„You really need to be more steady about yourself! And you, young man, this isn't a mere child. Before you stands Wendy Marvell, the Sky Dragon Slayer so show some respect!", Charle demanded.

Hawke, Anders and Merrill stood utterly speechless before the girl and her cat. Now that was some snobby cat.

„Charle, please. Don't be so rude! I aplogize and I'm happy to meet you all.", she quickly said and bowed slightly before them.

„You are Wendy, the healer I heard about?", Anders asked in shock.

„Yes, that's me." the girl said and smiled

„But you are still so young. You are sure you know of healing? And what was that about being a Dragon Slayer?",Anders was completly confused. Wasn't Dragon Slayer magic meant to slay dragons. And how was it possible that the girl was a healer so skilled that she was the guild's healer and took on specific requests which involved healing? She couldn't be more than 13 years old.

Anders remebered his own apprenticeship. When they discovered he had a talent for healing he was taken to those in the circle who were in charge for that. One of the most skilled healers became his mentor. She was a wise, old woman and taught him everything she knew. Wynne really was an outstanding healer that time.

But even with her as his mentor he couldn't even do half the stuff he was doing today when he was Wendy's age.

„That's my Dragon Slayer Magic.", Wendy suddenly said. Anders didn't notice that he was sunk so deeply in his thoughts that he forgot his surroundings.

„You heard of Dragon Slayer Magic, so I asume you know from where it comes. It's true that it is also suitable for defeating dragons. But the dragon that taught me was a Sky Dragon and her magic was healing magic in the first place,", Wendy explained as good as she could.

„You were raised by a Dragon?", Merrill asked in awe.

„Healing and baby sitting dragons. Can this place get any crazier?", Hawke comented.

Wendy blushed embarassed and looked to the side. Hawke noticed and tried to reassure her:

„I didn't mean it that way, you sure are an impressive mage. You can have the job, I'll pick just another..."

Wendy looked up and smiled again.

„Why don't we just form a team for this job?", Wendy suggested.

„Good idea, two healers are always better!", Anders said.

„You are a healer, too?", Wendy asked happily.

Anders nodded.

„Let's do this together! By the way, I'm Anders and these are Hawke and Merrill." He pointed at the two women next to him.

„Pleased to meet you, Anders-san, Hawke-san, Merrill-san.", she said once again.

„Then let's go inform Mirajane about this.", Charle contributed dryly and flew ahead.

The four mages informed Mirajane that they were taking the job as a team. Later it turned out that Wendy knew exactly where their destination was, so all the others had to do was to follow her.

Hawke and the others hadn't much with them when they arrived, so all they took were their staffs. Wendy in comparison stuffed a small backpack with all the stuff she might need, most of it books about herbs and their efects on humans and animals. They all received lunch boxes from Mirajane and after that they departed.

„So she really is doing this guild stuff..", Fenris muttered.

„That is the best option she currently has.", Varric responded.

„But that child. What is the meaning of this?", Aveline questioned.

„Don't worry. Wendy may be still young but she is strong." Erza suddenly appeared next to Aveline, who almost let out a shriek when she spoke.

„Erza.."

„So what do you think? Want to know the city better?", Erza suggested.

„Right, we can show you around!", Lucy agreed.

„Porlyusika-san sure didn't give you a sight seeing tour.", Gray comented.

„And we can show you where to get the best food!", Natsu joined in.

„Aye,sir!", Happy agreed.

„That sounds great!", Aveline said and turned to search for a certain pirate. „Isabela..." „Yaaaaay!", was all Aveline got as an answer and it was enough.

„Looks like Rivaini got herself a new bestie", Varric said.

„I can't believe she is drunk already, again...", Aveline sighed.

„And what about the rest of you?", Aveline wanted to know.

„Count me in for this sight seeing tour!", Varrics answered.

„Fenris?", she then asked.

„Don't be ridicioulous Aveline. As if I would hang out with mages just for fun!", Fenris hissed and caught an angry glance from Gray and Natsu.

„Come on, broody. If you can't stand the guild then go out with us!", Varric tried to convince him.

„No. I will not set a single foot alongside these abominations!", he shouted pointed at Erza, Lucy, Gray and Natsu.

Erza remained collected while Lucy was confused by this reaction. She certainly didn't await that.

On the other side,however, Gray and Natsu who gave their best to stay calm lost all patience by now. They both stepped before Fenris.

„What is your problem with magic, actaully?", Gray asked with a threatening undertone.

„And who do you think you are that you can call us such names?", Natsu added.

„How cute. Is that suposed to scare me, mages?", Fenris provocated them further.

„Let me get this staright, man. Hate magic all you like, but when you insult our family you'll pay, no matter what or who you are, got it?", Gray warned him.

The three men exchanged hateful looks, then Fenris turned to leave the group.

„I'm wasting my time..", he mumbled while moving but was stopped by something.

Someone had bumped into his leggs. When he looked down he discovered it was the girl from yesterday. She looked up and smiled at him.

„Fairy-nii-chan-"

„Get out of my way and leave me alone already!", he shouted at her. Scared by this Asuka began to cry and ran away, dropping a piece of paper in front of Fenris' feet.

„THAT'S IT, IMMA BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF YOU!", Natsu screamed and he and Gray were going to punch Fenris in the face if Erza wasn't there.

She hit each hardly on the head.

„STOP STARTING FIGHTS IDIOTS!", she shouted. Once again Natsu and Grey obeyed frightened. She grabbed both at their collars and bowed slightly before Fenris:

„I apologize for bothering you-"

„HE IS THE ONE WHO BOTHERS-"

„SILENCE!" Erza defenitly had everything under control. Fenris let out a frustrated grunt and turned to leave.

Erza then turned to Aveline:

„Meet us in front of the guild as soon as you are ready. We will be waiting." Then she turned to the front door and dragged Natsu and Gray to its direction, still their collars in her demanding grasp. Lucy followed her.

„Really, Fenris, it's okay that you don't want to come along but you could've been a bit nicer to the girl...", Aveline scolded the elf.

„She is just a filthy mage, like all of them...", he said bitterly.

„Broody, can't tell me that the girl is also secretly an evil blood mage!"

Another grunt came from the elf.

„Guess being nice to you is not an option either, huh? Hope you'll find something to do, while you are alone."

And with that Varric and Aveline left to the front door.

Fenris now stood alone there still hating this place from all of his heart. As if that child that apperantly was obsessed with faires is going to be any different from Hadriana or Danarius, and all the other mages here as well.

He looked to the ground and saw the piece of paper Asuka dropped when she ran away.

He turned it around and what he saw stabbed him right into the heart.

Asuka drew him a picture, as well as a 6-year old could draw. It showed him how he hold her hand,smiling. Something he didn't do for quite a long time now. But what hurt him the most was what was written above: „My friend"

Fenris gritted his teeth. He realized how mean he was to the poor little girl. She loved him the moment she saw him and in return he dispised her and broke her little child heart. But she is a mage he told himself. However it suddenly didn't weigh much as an excuse towards the girl.

He bit his lip. If Anders would see this, he surly would show him his smug, disgusting grin for the rest of their lives.

He brushed the thought away and decided to follow Asuka. He was going to fix that, even if it meant being Anders' laughing object for the rest of eternity.

Hawke, Wendy, Merill and Anders were walking for a pretty long time when Anders decided that he couldn't walk any longer.

„Let us rest...", he whined.

„Get a grip on yourself! We are almost there!", Charle scolded him.

„Yes, ma'm!", he answered sarcastically. Charle really made him question his love for cats.

After another while they reached a village which lay in the middle of the forest. But it seemed empty and the houses looked rather small for humans.

Wendy stepped into the village and began to speak:

„We are mages from Fairy Tail. We are here for your request."

The doors slowly opened. Creatures which weren't human stepped out of them. As they all walked out to see who was visiting them the mages saw, that its inhabitans were cats. Cats like Charle, Happy and Pantherlily! Anders felt like he found Maker's bosom.

Andraste's dimpled butt cheeks,this was even better than sex. A whole village full of talking cats. The next thing he wanted to do was just to lay down and cuddle all the cats for the rest of his life. Then he would die a happy man.

Suddenly an older cat forced its way through the cat crowd. It wore very fine clothes so Anders and the others asumed he was a high ranked cat in this village.

„Are you the healers?", the cat finally asked.

„Yes, we are here for the job.", Wendy explained.

„Show me your guild mark first.", the cat demanded.

Hawke and Wendy showed their guild crests on their arms. Merrill held up her hand and showed them her proof. And after Anders was done pulling his sleeve up he finally showed his guild crest as well.

„Follow me.", the cat then said. The mages did as they were told.

„So what is this job excatly about?", Hawke started to ask.

„It's my son. A few days ago he started to feel unwell and now he fell completely ill. We already did what we could. But it's not getting better. So we turned to Fairy Tail. We know you have good healers..."

The cat started to tremble.

„So please, save my son!" The cat truned around and bowed deeply while sobbing the last sentence.

Instantly Anders forgot about his excitement for the cats. What he saw wasn't just a cat anymore. All he saw was a father afraid of losing his son and what he felt was pity.

Wendy walked to the cat.

„Don't worry, we will do our best!", the little girl reassured. The cat nodded and lead them further through the viallage to a slightly bigger house. They would fit in, but still had to bow slightly when they went through the doors.

The mages followed the cat into the house, on stairs they follwed him up and were finally lead to a bedroom.

When they entered they saw a smaller cat laying in the bed. On his side a female cat, holding his paw, probably his mother.

She looked up.

„The mages are finally here. Oh, thank goodness, you are here!"

„It will be alright...", Anders reassured but found the cat holding onto his robe.

„I beg you, please save him! You can do that right?" She was crying her eyes out. It really was serious. Anders tried to say something but couldn't. Interacting with cats was much easier when all you had to do was putting a bowl of milk in front of your clinic.

He then finally said:

„I will do everything that lays in my power." His expression hardened. Determination was burning like fire in his golden brown eyes. In that very moment he excluded failing as an option from his mind.

He walked to the bed and Wendy followed him. Together they began to examine the little guy, their magic beginning to glow in a warm light, as they tried to figure out the sickness that befell him. Doing so Anders noticed that the cat was rather young. The colour of his furr was mixed. It was white with a few dark sections on it. For instance the furr around his left eye, on his right ear and his paws were dark brown while the rest was white.

He was breathing heavily and Anders' magic sensed a high fever burning within him.

„His body temperature is way too high!", Wendy spoke the fact.

„But I don't know what cause it has.", she continued.

„Keep looking, we must identify the deseas." Anders sounded determined. Wendy just nodded and intensified her magic and concentration.

Merril and Hawke only stood by and watched. They had no idea what to do and felt absolutely useless. All they did was believing in the two healers and praying that they would succeed.

First he didn't known where to go, but when Fenris walked to the back yard of the guild house he heard what he was looking for. A soft sob reached his ear and when he looked into that direction he saw Asuka sitting on a bench. The little girl had buried her head into her knees and was crying silently.

Maker, Fenris never felt so bad in all of his life.

He walked over to her and sat carefully next to her on the wooden bench. He hestitated when he put a hand on her shoulder.

The little girl twitched at the touch and rose her head to see who was sitting next to her. When she saw that it was Fenris she didn't know what to do, so she just looked at him from her wet eyes. But before Fenris could say anything she began to speak:

„Say, Fairy-nii-chan...Did I do something wrong...?"

Fnris bit his lip, as the guilt was tearing him apart from the inside. How could he be so mean to such an adorable girl? And on top of that she was still thinking that he was a fairy, despite the hatred he carelessly threw at her!

He took a deep breath before he regained his voice. „No, you didn't do anything wrong." He tried to smile.

„But why were so angry with me?", Asuka asked innocently. That was indeed a good question. How would he explain that. If he told her about his past and Kirkwall she wouldn't understand a word. She was way too young. He thought intensely about what he was going to say next but couldn't come up with anything plausible.

„I...was just in a bad mood..", he then stuttered, still trying to smile friendly.

„Did you have a bad day?", Asuka asked staring at him with wide eyes. And since Fenris hadn't a better option he just agreed.

„Yes, a very bad day, indeed."

„And now you are feeling better?" The girl really wanted to make sure.

„Yes, much better. And I'm sorry that I was mean to you. What do you say? Can you forgive me?", Fenris apologized. He really hoped he didn't scare the child off for good. He wouldn't like it if she ran away everytime she saw him. And that was the moment he realized that he was starting to grow fond of her.

Asuka brushed her tears way and gave him a bright smile.

„Does that mean we can be friends?", she asked eagerly.

„The best friends in the world!", Fenris agreed and as soon as he said that Asuka jumped on his lap and hugged him tightly.

And this time Fenris sincely returned the hug with all the warmth he could give at the moment.

In the middle of Magnolia Erza and her friends showed Aveline and Varric the city. They went to the grand Kardia Cathedral. While visiting the church they discussed the differences between Thedas and Firore in matters of religion. Erza and the others were surprised when they heard that mages there were watched by the Chantry through the Templar Order and the Circle of Magi.

„That is horrible.", was Lucy's coment.

„We already heard from Anders..", Natsu began.

„Yeah, that life there really must suck.", Gray ended.

„Perhaps, but to the Chantry magic is a curse that brings up only ruin and death.", Aveline tried to explain. She somehow sounded convinced of that ideology.

„Do you really think that, Aveline.", Erza asked seriously.

„I-"

„Locking people up, taking their freedom because they are afraid of them but use their abilities when needed sounds like tyranny and slavery to me." Erza made very clear that she already hated the order in Thedas. Aveline could easily imagine that she would stand before Meredith without fear, as she watched her standing before her, arms crossed and with a determined expression on her face.

„It is because there have been many incidents where mages lost control and easily destroyed a whole city with all of its inhabitants.", Varric then explained.

„Oh really? And did ever the idea occure to you that they are mentally exhausted and angry with the people who opressed them?", Erza asked and then sighed,

„I admit that magic can be great power indeed and it requires a certain strength and responsibility to handle it, but these are things every mage can learn. Magic is no curse, it's the power to believe.", Erza continued.

„I'm not sure if I can understand that.", Aveline admitted. Erza then smiled:

„Never mind. We are here to have a good time and not to argue over the danger of magic."

They left the cathedral and procceeded with their tour. Aveline and Erza went ahead and returned to their conversation about weapons and armour. Gray and Natsu started to fight again, but always fell silent when Erza turned around.

Behind them Varric and Lucy were walking.

„Your friends really remind me of Blondie and Broody. They are also argueing on every occasion. But we have no Erza to silnce them.", Varric comented on Natsu and Gray.

„Broody and Blondie?", Lucy asked confused.

„Yeah, right. I mean Fenris and Anders.", Varric clarified.

„Oh, I see.", Lucy said.

„So what is such a pretty princess like you doing in that guild?", Varric then asked.

Lucy blushed. „Well, I'm a mage of course...", she stuttered.

„And please don't call me princess..." Lucy remembered Virgo. The only thing missing was that Varric would ask her for punishment.

„I'm sorry.", he apologized and secretly decided that he would continue calling her princess.

„What I meant, the guild is such a dirty place. You don't really fit in there."

„It wasn't always like that. When I joined it was the strongest guild in the whole kingdom and the guild house was bigger and more beautiful.", Lucy explained.

„And what exactly happened that it changed so drastically?", Varric demanded to know.

„It's a long and complicated story.", Lucy said.

„Perhaps one day I will write it down." The last thing she actually told herself but Varric heard it.

„You write, princess?", Varric asked surprised. Lucy got frightned when she heard Varric saying that.

„Huh? Yeah..I..am working on a novel...", she stuttered and giggled nervously.

„Can I take a look one day? I'm a writer,too.", Varric encouraged her.

„It really isn't that good...", she tried to deny.

„Don't be so shy princess, I'm sure it's better than you think. But I will not push you.", Varric said.

„Thank you.", Lucy responded.

„What do you say? Care to tell me the story of Fairy Tail's breakdown later at the guild?", he changed the subject.

„I told you not to call me princess...", Lucy said with an annoyed undertone.

„I take it as a 'yes'.", Varric comented.

And thus the tour through Magnolia continued the rest of the day.

Meanwhile in the cat village Wendy and Anders were still trying to figure out the cat's deseas. Both healers looked like they could use a break, but neither of them gave up. However Wendy was the first break down.

„Wendy!", Charle sounded worried. Merrill and Hawke ran to her side helping her get on her feet.

„I'm fine...", she tried to convince them.

„Don't be reckless, Wendy! You need a break!", Charle insisted. „

But-"

„It's alright, Wendy. Rest for now, I will continue on my own.", Anders suddenly said, not taking hs look away from the ill cat.

„Anders-san..."

Once again the blonde mage intensified his magic. He had to find the cause for this fever, he just had to. He owed that to his parents. He moved his glowing hand up and down the body of the little cat, putting an enormous amount of concentration into his examination and for a second he caught a glimpse of something. A sensation that told him he was close to the real deseas. Again he let the light of his magic become stronger and again he felt it, but this time he wasn't wiling to let it escape his grasp. He closed his eyes and focused on it. First his vision was blurry but slowly it became clear to him. The shape of the virus was showing off in his mind and he knew what it was.

Influenza.

A common sickness and compared to others relativly easy to cure. It could become dangrous however, if other circumstances ouccured. He sensed that it was pulling at the strenght of the little guy. Being a cat was one of them, it would seem.

He knew how to cure it. He needed fresh elfroot and a small amount of lyrium dust. Sadly he hadn't brought his clinic along, and all the herbs he needed either. So he turned to Wendy who was sitting on a chair next to Hawke.

„Wendy, I know the problem!", he exclaimed.

„You do?", she asked.

„Yes, it's a simple influenza. But I can't heal it only with you know herbs for that?", Anders asked.

„Oh, right!", Wendy knew what they needed.

„Scarlet Forest Lilies.", she said. Hawke and Merrill gave her a puzzled look.

„Do you have those?", Anders asked.

„No, but they should be found nearby.", she said.

„Perfect! Hawke, Merrill, please go search for those flowers.", Anders ordered.

„Sure, we haven't anything better to do here anyway. But how do they look? And how are we supposed to find them?", Hawke,asked. Sarcasm seemed to be an eternal ally of hers.

„Here!", then Wendy suddenly said. She stood with an open book in front of them.

„This is the flower. Take the book with you. Here you can see how it looks. You should find it growing on the ground where trees grow. Near the roots.", she explained.

„I can-", she wanted to offer them her company but was interrupted by Anders.

„No, I need you here! While the two are searching for the flower we need to keep the fever low. As soon as you recover, please help me.", he explained.

Wendy nodded in agreement.

„Alright. We will try to return as soon as possible!", Merrill reassured. She and Hawke then went out of the house and headed to the forest.

Anders was doing his best to keep the fever low, but he was hitting his limits. His breath quickened and sweat was starting to flow down his forehead. _I need to stay strong_ he kept telling gritted his teeth, his eye lids were pressed together.

„Hang in there, little one..."

At the same time. The little cat opened its eyes slightly. The first thing he saw was Anders healing him. He could see the effort he was putting in it. The strength he sacrificed for him.

The cat felt a warmth from inside its body, originating from its chest. It wasn't the fever it was suffering. This warmth was comfortable and made it feel safe. It felt safe in Anders' hands.

Hawke and Merrill were walking through the forest for a while now without finding the needed flower.

„I just hope we find that bloody flower soon...", Hawke mumbled to herself.

„Look where the trees grow. There sure are some of them.", Merrill encouraged her, holding the book with the page with the picture on it.

The two women kept looking when Merril suddenly started to speak again:

„Do you think we will find a way back home?"

„I certainly hope so. Otherwise we can work on our career as Fairy Tail mages and Aveline needs an entírely new job.", Hawke laughed.

Merrill smiled sadly. That was just Hawke. Eventhough Merrill threw them in the stickiest situation they could imagine, Hawke still found the strength to laugh about it.

„I'm sorry...", she whispered. Suddenly she felt two hands on her shoulders. Hawke was holding her, looking into her eyes and she was smiling.

„Merrill, stop blaming yourself. No one could've foreseen what the Eluvian would do. By the way, I don't find this world so bad. We are no longer considered apostates after all. Now let's search for the flower and save the poor kitten."

Merrill smiled back. Tears came to her eyes. „Thank you...", she whispered and hugged Hawke tightly.

„Now, Now..."

As Hawke was holding Merrill in her arms she saw something red slightly moving in the breeze. She let go of Merrill and left the elf perplexed standing around in the middle of the forest.

She took a closer look at what she saw and waved Merrill to her. Merrill kneeled next to her and her eyes widned. Then she looked into the book only to make sure.

They found it. The Scarlet Forest Lily.

Right in front of them it was growing under a huge tree. There weren't many of them, but for one small cat it would suffice.

They picked them all and wanted to leave as they heard a deep grunt behind them. They slowly turned around only to discover a huge monkey staring at them.

„Woman...", it said.

Merrill and Hawke screamed in horror. They attempted to run away, but the huge monkey grabbed Merrill and ran away with her.

„Hey give back Merrill!", Hawke shouted and followed it. Merrill already fell unconcious in the monkey's grasp. Where did one here that huge monkeys attack people? Dragons were likely to attack, but huge monkeys?

Hawke ran after it and pulled out her staff. She attacked it with a fireball which threw the monkey flying against the next tree.

It stood up again and tossed Merrill to the side. Hawke had now its full attention. It was now running towards Hawke, but the mage reacted quickly and threw a Winter's Grasp at it. And to finish it off, she sent a Stone Fist right afterwards. The Stone Fist destroyed the ice enveloping the huge monkey and knocked it off. Hawke then walked over to it and took a closer look. She sighed in relieve when she saw it was unconcious. She put her staff back to her back and went to Merrill. Hawke took her by her shoulders and shook her quite ungently.

„Come on, Merrill. Wake up! Now's not the time for a nap!"

No reaction.

Hawke though about what to do now and had an idea. She took a big swing and slapped Merril in her face. Immediatly the elf woke up.

„Is it still around?", she asked terrified.

„No I dealt with it in the right manner.", Hawke declared triumphantly and pointed into its direction.

„Thank the creators...", Merrill sighed.

„Now, let's bring those flowers to Anders and Wendy", Hawke said. She helped Marril get on her feet and headed back.

When they returned they saw how Anders was still keeping the fever down. They saw the effort he put into it and that he was already worn out but he kept going.

„We have the flower.", Hawke simply anounced.

Wendy walked to them and took the plant from them.

„Thank you. I will now prepare the medicine.", she said.

Another half an hour passed, in which Wendy prepared the medicine they needed to cure the illness and Anders spent all his Mana to keep the fever down.

Hawke saw him sweating and breathing heavily, and more than once was she going to tell him to take a break. But when she saw his determination and the cat's condition she stopped and let him be. The parents of the cat holding eachother in pain and worry gave her the rest.

How fate could turn. Three years ago she was battling the Arishok and now she was feeling sadness and pity for talking cats and fought a monkey for their sake.

Finally Wendy came back. She had smashed the flowers and prepared a special tea out of them.

She walked to the cat and made it drink the tea, while Anders still fought against the fever.

After she emptied the cup in the cat's mouth she returned to activate her healing magic. With Wendy's help and the tea, Anders finally managed to let the fever vanish for good and Wendy could destroy the virus at last, that was torturing the little guy.

Finally they were done. Anders fell back on the ground, completely exhausted. All he wanted right now was a good sleep.

„Im done...", he mumbled and brushed the sweat from his forehead. Vaguely he could hear the cats cry out in happiness that their little kitten was save.

„Louis...", they cried.

 _So that was his name_ he thought and smiled satisfied to himself.

After Anders had recovered so he could walk back to the guild, the mages took their leave. They received their reward from the village and were sent away with all the best wishes they could get.

They were already on the half of their way, as they heard a high pitched voice shouting.

„Wait!"

As they turned around they recognized the cat that was dead ill an hour ago.

„What are you doing here?" Anders was the first to speak their minds.

„I'm coming with you!", the cat said.

„What? Why?", Anders asked in shock.

„The cat looked to the ground.

„Because you saved me...", the cat said.

„But Wendy was the one who destroyed the virus.", Anders clarified.

The cat shook his head.

„That's true but, you are the one who kept me alive until she could do so.I already passed out and if it wasn't for you I wouldn't have made it. I would be dead by now. I felt your magic holding me tight, keeping me warm, keeping my soul in my body. I felt your warmth. I owe you my life. So please let me make it up to you!"

Hawke, Merrill and Wendy listened impressed.

„So what do you say, Anders. There you go, a cat for you.", Hawke comented.

„Do even your parents know of this.", Charle asked sharply.

„Of course!", the cat reassured.

„Your name is Louis, right?", Anders asked. The cat nodded. Anders then smiled widely.

„I would be more than happy to have you by my side, Louis!", he said. A big smile appeared on his face and he flew right into Anders' arms.


	3. The Grand Magic Games

_Hello everyone and welcome to the third chapter of this crossover. I'm really sorry that it took so long this time but as some of you might know I was busy with exams last month, so there wasn't really time for writing or gaming._

 _But enough of that! I hope you enjoy the third chapter. :)_

 **Chapter Three: The Grand Magic Games**

„Enough of this nonsense, Varric!", the seeker shouted while she punched the table between her and the cocky dwarf. He grinned.

„What?", he asked provocatively and shrugged.

„First another world besides ours, then mage guilds and now flying, talking cats who employ mages and dragons who raise children? From all of your ridicioulous exegarations and lies this is the most laughable one, dwarf! And you expect me to believe even one word of it?"

Cassandra was burning with anger. She already heard many lies and uncovered them all. But this was like he was telling her a good night story from a children's book and it made her sick because she also felt disrespected by this. How stupid did he think she was?

„I told you that it would get crazier than anything you have heard or seen so far, Seeker and you agreed to finish listening!", Varric interfered in her thoughts.

„Yes, but this...", she began.

„I know but you promised that I would not end up headless for it. We had a deal!", Varric clarified once again.

Cassandra straightened her back, inhaled deeply and then exhaled to calm herself. When she thought she regained full control of her emotions she spoke again:

„Fine, go on then."

„As you wish..."

* * *

The sun was already setting above Magnolia when Hawke, Anders, Merrill and Wendy returned to the guild house.

„We're home!", Wendy anounced their return and were welcomed by everyone.

„I could use some good wine now!" Hawke yawned while she stretched.

Suddenly Anders stepped forward and shouted:

„Look, everyone. I also have a cat now. Meet my new friend, Louis!"

His eyes were wide and sparkeled with joy and his voice sounded proud with an excited, squeeking undertone to it, like a little child on its birthday about to open all the presents it recieved.

„Aye, I'm Louis, nice to meet you all." The white and brown shaked cat flew at Anders' side and introduced himself. Immediatly he was pulled into a Anders' arms and cuddled intensly.

He earned an amused smile from Hawke, Merrill and Wendy behind him.

„Jeez...", Charle comented and rolled her brown eyes.

„But don't kill him with your love, Blondie.", Varric laughed and everyone joined in.

„Look, Happy, a new playmate for you!", Natsu turned to his blue furred friend.

„Aye", he answered and flew over to Louis who by now was released from the loving grip of his mage.

Pantherlily and Charle already gathered around the new exceed. When Happy arrived the four little cats introduced themselved personally.

* * *

Later on Hawke and her companions sat at a large round table with the young Fairy Tail mages. Mirajane served them several drinks, however refused to give any more to Cana and Isabela as the latter was already almost falling from her chair again.

Anders sat with Natsu, Gray and Gajeel and told them everything about the job they have done that day and especially how Louis came to him.

Hawke and Merrill talked with Lucy, Wendy and Levy about the giant monkey who attacked them in the forest while they searched for the herb for Anders and Wendy. Occasionally Lisanna and Mirajane joined in when they weren't busy serving the drinks to the mages. And to Erza's and Aveline's discussion about weaponary and armour seemed no end.

Varric quickly finished the last sip of his drink before he turned to Lucy. He remembered that Princess wanted to tell him how it came that the guild's head quarter was this rotten, wooden house.

„Princess, you told me that your head quarter formerly was much bigger and fancier. So tell me, what happened exactly before we stumbled into your world."

„Please don't call me Princess...", Lucy whined.

„Forget it, if he once calls you with a nickname he will never stop it. Get used to it."; Hawke chuckeled.

Lucy frowned as Virgo once again came to her mind. She quickly shook the image of whips, shackles and leather from her thoughts and looked at Varric.

„Ah right, I wanted to tell you how it came to this misery of ours. Would you believe me if I told you that some of us were trapped on an island for seven years?", Lucy began her story.

„Trapped on an island for whole seven years? How did that happen and what has it to do with the guild's breakdown?", Varric asked.

Lucy closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as if she was collecting and organizing her thoughts. Varric knew this behaviour, he did the same when he was about to tell a big, fancy story to his audience. This sure was to be good.

„Seven years ago, we held our anual S-Class-trial. As its name says the trial exists to determine who is worthy and ready enough to be promoted to be an S-Class-Mage. S-Class-Mages are considered the best in their guilds and are sent to more difficult jobs, to sum it up a bit.", Lucy proceeded. Varric nodded and by know she captured the attention of everyone else around the table.

„By tradition Fairy Tail holds its S-Class-Trials on an island that is considered property of the guild. It is also viewd as holy to us and none but the guild members are allowed to set even a single foot on it."

„Tenrou Jima...I think I will never forget those days...", Erza said thoughtfully.

After moments of heavy silence Lucy chose to go on in her storytelling.

„At the beginning we held our trial as usual. The candidates, of whom I was part, were confronted with different tasks to prove themselves. However a couple of days later we were attacked by a dark guild."

„What is that?", Anders asked.

„Right, you do not know. Let me explain our situation here briefly. Unlike you, mages here are ruled by the magic council, a council of some of the strongest and most powerful mages on the continent. Everything about magic or concerning mages is issue of the magic council. They are also the ones to judge and imprison a mage should he or she ever comit any crimes. And as you might imagine offcial guilds need to be registered and recognized by the magic council, like ours. But there are also guilds which are not recognized as official guilds and many of them are even branded as dark guilds. Criminal guilds, which have fallen to the forbidden arts of magic and accept any job offered to them even if it involves obvious inhuman crimes. They are hunted by the council and in order to get rid of them it provided the official guilds with the right to destroy the dark ones if encounterd by any means."

„Sounds pretty much like a magesterium to me...", Fenris comented who sat next to Hawke and remained silent otherwise. Asuka was already taken to bed so there was no one left of these mages to whom he could talk.

Lucy shot a judging look at Fenris. She didn't know what he was talking about but she knew enough to figure out that it involved his spite towards magic. However Lucy wasn't one to pick up a fight at every coment she didn't like so she knowingly overheard what he said and went on:

„We fought the dark mages on Tenrou Jima and as we fought fiercly we invoked a power that we all thought was but a myth. When we thought we had finished the dark guild, a monster arose that was only known from old storys and legends. A dragon attacked and almost killed us."

„Wait.", it was Hawke who fell in.

„Being attacked by a dragon is sure nothing that happens everyday, however not really strange either. I heard stories of people being attacked by dragons every now and then. So what's with that talk about legends? And I still can't see how that would cause you to disappear for 7 years.", she said.

Lucy turned her face to her.

„They may exist in your world, as I have heard, but here dragons are extinct.", Lucy explained.

„But what about the Dragon Slayers, the mages who were raised by dragons? They aren't really old, so there must've been a few a decade or less ago.", Merrill spoke. The elven mage had a hard time following the explanations.

„They disappeared.", Natsu suddenly took part in the conversation and earned the attention of everyone at the table.

„7, no, 14 years ago our parents just disappeared without telling us a word, leaving us as little children to our own. I don't know what happened."

As he spoke Natsu's tone was oddly bitter, a tone that didn't fit him since it went entirely against his cheerful nature. Hawke could already tell after knowing him for barely 2 days.

When she looked around she noticed that the mood has changed entirely. No one was chatting carelessly now and the smiles on their faces vanished, either because they concentrated on the conversation taking place right now or because they were reminded of unfriendly memories and Hawke began to feel increasingly uncomfortable herself. Even so when she saw Wendy staring sadly to the ground, Natsu's hardened gaze which got him a concerned look from Lucy, and Gajeel who avoided eyecontact with anyone and preferd looking out of the next window he could spot.

Who knew that someone could miss a dragon that painfully.

Hawke couldn't take the pressure of this heavy silence that befell them all any longer.

„Uh...please, continue, Lucy.", Hawke pleaded the blonde mage.

Lucy nodded, still watching Natsu with a worried gaze but then gave in to Hawke's request.

„We were powerless against the sheer force of the black dragon that released his wrath upon us. Perhaps it wouldn't have been to tagic if it was an ordinary dragon, though still imensly strong and difficult to deal with. No, it was no ordinary dragon but it was none less than Acnologia, the king of dragons."

Hawke's body tensed unintentionly and she could observe that her companions felt the same. Even Isabela seemed to have sobered up by listening to Lucy. Varric stared at the blonde girl. He looked like the mage's story has topped anything Varric has expected and every story he told to anyone so far. So sounded his coment.

„King...of dragons...?", he whispered with an unbelieving undertone.

„We fought, we had no other choice...", Lucy continued. „But our attacks were of no use against Acnologia. It was like throwing pebble stones at a fortress. We went beyond ourselves and he had not a single scretch. And as we were completly worn out we were pretty sure that the beast would kill us with one strike of his gigantic claws. And that's when the unbelievable happned."

She paused and took another breath, then rose her voice again:

„I already told you that the island is holy to us. There is a special reason for this: On the island lies the grave of the very first Guild Master, the mage who founded Fairy Tail 100 years ago, Mavis Vermillion. And she was the one who saved us from our certain deaths."

„Let me get this straight. You said the grave of her lies over there which means she is dead. So how come she saved you?",Anders asked. „I wonder, too..", Louis agreed who lied on the mage's head and listened carefully.

Lucy smiled:

„Her body may have long rotten in her grave but her sprirt is still alive and she still watches over us all and when the time came she intervened and saved us from the dragon. She formed a magic barrier around us and thus sealed us away for 7 years. Thinking us dead the dragon eventually lost interest and returned from whence he came. But we stayed. And as the years passed we remained in our deep slumber. It was not long ago that we returned and found ourselves confronted with a 7-year-gap."

„So something happened within those seven years.", Varric figured.

„Kind of.", an unkown voice suddenly said. It was soft but yet strong. Perhaps the voice of a boy who was growing into a young man.

They turned and saw a black haired boy standing behind Varric. His eyes were also dark and his outfit made obvios that he was mimicing a certain pink haired Dragon Slayer. He was about Wendy's age, so Hawke's impression was right.

„Romeo!", Natsu exclaimed.

„Good evening, Natus-nii.", he greeted back.

„What do you do here at this time?", Lucy asked, since it was already past 10. Hawke didn't notice herself. Too exciting was the story that the blonde mage was telling.

„A really good question young man!", said an older man who appeared behind the boy. His hair was turning from dark to grey already. It was combed back and a big moustache decorated his upper lip.

„But, Tou-chan...!", the boy began.

„No 'buts', Romeo! Your mother will kill me if she doesn't find you in your bed the next 30 minutes!",the man argued.

So he was his father.

„Oh come on Macao, sit with us and let the boy have some fun." A man with short, dark blonde hair aproached the company. He was smoking a huge cigar while he was grinning widely.

„No, Wakaba. He cannot have it his way all the time. Where will that lead us?", Macao replied.

„But Tou-chan, I wanted to see the new mages and their friends. Especially Hawke-san. I heard she is strong and Asuka-chan told me she had a real fairy with her!", Romeo tried again and looked at his father with big, round eyes.

Meanwhile Fenris flinched at the word fairy. He had accepted that Asuka thought him to be one, but this boy was too old for that.

„I am not a fairy...", the elf hissed.

„Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. My name is Romeo. Pleased to meet you, Hawke-san!", Romeo then quickly said and bowed from the other side of the table to Hawke.

The woman smiled and greeted him back:

„I'm also happy to meet you, Romeo."

„Now come on already, Macao. Have a cup of booze, before you go and drag the lad along!", Wakaba now said and pulled the other man next to him on a seat.

„W-Well, I guess that'll be okay...", Macao stuttered.

Mirajane brought them each a cup of booze while Romeo placed himself next to Varric. The dwarf was then the first to speak:

„I still don't know what exactly happened to the guild in those seven years."

„The Grand Magic Games.", Romeo answered, before Lucy could open her mouth.

Hawke and her companions gave the boy a questioning look.

„Magic Games...?", Merrill was the one who asked, which was burning in all of their minds. How was magic a game?

Fenris unwillingly moved closer to Hawke. This land was getting even worse than Tevinter, a condition he thought only appeared in his most horrifying nightmares, now came true.

„Fenris, are you alright?"

Hawke had noticed the elf's sudden discomfort and gave him a worried look from her honey coloured eyes.

Fenris turned his face to her. His emerald eyes fixed a few seconds too long on her.

„I...am just a bit tired.", he sighed.

Hawke layed her hand on his shoulder.

„Are you sure?", she asked softly.

„If you feel sick, you can go rest, Fenris-san."

Mirajane stood on the other side of the table and looked at him, as much worried as Hawke.

It was then when Fenris noticed that everyone looked at him, worried as well. Even that abomination seemed kind of concerned.

„I can check on you if you like.", a soft voice offered from behind. When he turned to identify its owner he saw the blue haired, little girl. What did Hawke call her? Wendy.

Being faced with this concern of the mages he was forced to overthink his comparison to Tevinter. Perhaps they weren't as terrible as Danarius.

„No, thank you. It really is okay.", Fenris then reassured, trying to sound as friendly as possible.

„If you say so...", Hawke said, still unsure about the elf next to her.

Wendy then smiled.

„If you feel unwell, please don't hestitate to tell me.", she offered her help.

Fenris could only nod and the little mage went back to her place.

„Please feel free to ask for help if yoou should need any.", Mirajane then said, while she also finally took a seat at the table.

„That's what friends are for, right?", the white haired woman added when she saw Fenris' puzzled look.

Once more the elf nodded and once more an awekward silence fell upon the company.

„So, The Grand Magic Games and then?", Hawke chose to break the silence.

„Of course. As the name sugggests The Grand Magic Games are a competition for mages. When we returned we learned that it was a 5-days-event, with different disciplines each day. While we were away the games were created to determine the best guild of Fiore. However, our best mages, like Erza or Mirajane were also trapped on Tenrou Jima and eventually our guild each year lost a part of its reputation until there was nothing left of it. Possible employers stopped hiring us. The guild's economy broke down. Therefor we lost our original head quarter and were forced to work in this thing.", Lucy then finished her explanation.

„Sealed away on an island for seven years by the spirit of the first guild master? No wonder you didn't sent us to the next loony bin when we said we were from another world.", Hawke laughed.

„That and we already had a similar problem once.", Lucy answered.

„So there is even another world?", Merrill asked fascinated.

„Yes.", Lucy nodded. „It's called Edolas and it is a parrallel world to ours."

„Parrallel?", Merrill asked again.

„Yeah. Everyone you find here you could find there somehow. Odd right?", Natsu was the one to answer Merrill's question this time.

„And how did you find out about that parrallel world? Also stepped through a cursed mirror?", Anders asked, putting as much of his sharp sarcasm into his question as he could.

„They tried to steal our magic.", Natsu replied.

That wasn't an answer the spirit healer had expected. How do you steal magic, he wondered and Fenris asked himself why anyone would willingly bring that curse called magic into their world, but kept these thoughts to himself.

„When they tried to absorb this world's magic they sucked us all into their world. Most of us were sealed into a Lacrima, a crystal in which you can concentrate and save magic. But Lucy, Wendy, Happy and I managed to remain free and also free our friends.", Natsu explained further.

„You see, we also could return to our world, so we are sure we can also help you with that.", Lucy added.

„Wow, this world is really strange.", Varric comented. He was obviously too buffled by the newly recieved revelations to come up with anything smarter.

„So these Magic Games. Were there also any this year?", Anders turned their topic back to the competition.

„There will be Grand Magic Games in 3 months and this time we will restore our honour!", Romeo said proudly.

„Oh? Couldn't have a better timing for coming here then, right?", Hawke chuckled.

„I still don't like the idea of us participating, the people will only laugh at us.", Macao said.

„Don't be so pesimistic, Tou-chan! They may be laughing at us now but we have now Erza-nee, Mira-nee and Natsu-nii. And to add on top of it, Hawke-san also came to us and that is a sign that this year will be different!", Romeo said, optimisticly.

Hawke blushed to the boy's confidence about her, however also felt increasingly nervous. She imagined herself participating in the Games and losing, thus bringing shame to her guild. She didn't know what the standard of magic was here after all, and what other guilds awaited them.

So she just replied: „I'll do what I can..."

„So we are doing this too?", Merrill asked.

„Unless we find a way back before the games start, we'll have to give our fans what they want. A bit of freezing here and some explosions there should keep the masses quiet.", Hawke joked.

„That's why Master was away. He went to the capital to sign up for our guild and tomorrow he'll anounce the team which will represent us in the games.", Mirajane informed them.

„The number of actual participants is limited.", Merrill recognized.

„See? Nothing to worry about, Merrill. The master will surly choose mages he knows. We only arrived yesterday. He will not reliy on surprises.", Hawke reassured Merrill once again.

„That would be true for his first choice. However it can accure that someone for some reason will be unable to participate. So be ready for possible replacement choices nonetheless.", Mirajane then said, making clear that the guild intended to treat Hawke and her companions as full members with all the duties everyone else had and not like allied side figures. Thus Hawke failed to make Merrill feel more comfortable about this. She sighed.

„Don't worry. It will be alright if we all give it our best!", Mirajane then added, smiling, meaning to encourage them as she saw Merrill's concerned gaze and succeeded in making the elven woman smile at least slightly.

Mirajane was a great person, Hawke thouth to herself. The white haired woman cared for everyone and smiled to everyone. They were lucky to meet these people in this strange world, especially Mirajane. Hawke couldn't imagine her being agressive or angry and she wondered if there was someone like this also in Thedas. She quickly perished the thought. Thedas was a place far to cruel to let someone like Mirajane be the way they were.

You always had to be cautious out there, never trust entirely. Too much kindness and sincerety like Mirajane showed could turn out to be deadly in Thedas.

Suddenly Hawke felt the wish to stay, not to return to her harsh land that showed no mercy to the weak.

With this in her mind Hawke stood up and anounced that she would retreat to rest for the rest of the night.

The young mages wished her a good night and soon her companions followed her to their assigned quarters in Fairy Hills.

* * *

Hawke woke up early the next day. During the night she couldn't get a proper sleep either. Too many thoughts have circled her mind. She wondered if they could ever return to Kirkwall or if she even wanted to. She was growing fond of the guild. Upon meeting them she realized how rare good people and friends were in Thedas. The people were too torn apart by distrust and fear. There people walked with armour and all kinds of blades and weapons attached to them like it was normal to fear for their lves. And they were right. Eversince Thedas was ruled by war and it dpressed her.

Seeing the people here living peacfully, without the necessety of being armed to the teeth on every occasion made her realize Thedas' aweful situation, which on the other hand made her wish to return less urgent. Who would miss a few apostates, a pirate, a runaway, elven slave and a rougueish dwarf anyway? Perhaps Aveline's missing would be noticed. She was guard captain after all. Imagining Kirkwall's city guards without a clue on what to do without the organizing orders of their captain was amusing, nonethelss.

She smiled slightly and finally managed to sit up. She saw that Aveline was still slumbering deeply. Isabela was no better. She was snorting slightly and her upper body actually lied on the floor while her leggs remained on the bed.

When she turned to the bed next to her she saw that it was empty and the sheets were folded accurately. It seemed that Merrill had woken up befor her and probably was having breakfast down in the guild.

Hawke then decided to stand up. She quickly put on her clothes and combed her black hair. She made sure her fringe was framing her face correctly and tied the rest of her hair together behind her back. Afterwards she attached her staff to her back and hurried down to the guild.

* * *

Upon arriving to the front door she almost squeaked of amusement. The sight that was offered to her was priceless and mentally she thanked the Maker and blessed Andraste countless times.

The little Asuka was already awake and played with th elves. First she saw Merrill, holding the small hand of the little girl and runninng with her along the front courtyard. But what made this moment so delightful was the appearance of the dalish mage. On her had she wore a silver painted crown decorated with pink glittering stones. It wasn't difficult to see that it was a rather cheap material, considering that it landed in the hands of a child and the guild's economical situation.

A pair of artificial, also glittering wings were attatched to her back and she wore a pink, fluffy short skirt around her waist. In her hand she held a silver painted rod that matched the crown on her head.

„Come one, Fairy-nee-chan, let's play!", Asuka shouted excitedly.

They both ran across Hawke. When Hawke greeted them they stopped and greeted back.

„Good morning, Hawke-nee-chan!", said Asuka and bowed slightly before the black haired woman.

„Oh, good morning, Hawke-", Merrill barely brought out this sentence before she was dragged along by Asuka.

„Don't fall on you nose. Fairy!", Hawke shouted behind her.

„Good. at least I am free for a while now.", a deep voice said next to her. Hawke turned to her side to witness the moment she would brand as the best moment in her life later on.

Next to her stood Fenris, dressed in the same manner as Merrill: Crown on the head, glittering wings on his back, dressed in a fluffy, pink skirt and holding a rod in his right hand, matching his crown.

She hold her hand before her mouth and began to snort with laughter.

„Don't you dare laugh at me, Hawke!", Fenris hissed.

„I'm sorry, but you are such a cute fairy.", Hawke laughed.

Fenris blushed a deep tomato red.

„It's not like I like this clothing. But Asuka wanted to play and...", he stopped, his nervosness increasing. How would he explain this embarassing situation to her.

„You're taking care of her? How come?", she now asked truly curious.

Fenris blushed even deeper.

„H-Her parents went out on a job today...and...and...I-I agreed to t-take...care of her..."

Dammit, he thought. What in the Maker's name was wrong with him. He stuttered like an idiot before her. Was it really so difficult to tell her that he was babysitting a child today. Nothing strange about that. People did it all the time. But he knew why he was so insecure. From the very first moment in which Fenris met Hawke he always bragged about how horrible mages were. The first time he was forced to ovethink his opinion was when he and Hawke actually became friends and...more. He gritted his teeth.

Maker's balls, why had he to remeber that night right now?

That night completly crushed his opinion about mages. He had fallen for one after all and when he realized that, he couldn't bare to stay and he ran. Now he found himself surrounded by even more mages who didn't match his image of the evil, blood magic practicing Tevinter magister, and the child already melted his heart.

Would he admit all that to Hawke now? He was too afraid to do so.

„You like her, right?", the woman suddenly said.

„I-", he was too buffled to form a proper sentence.

„I hardly imagine that anyone forced you, Fenris. You did it volunteeraly.", Hawke proceeded. She looked at him and smiled, a smile that almost made his knees give in.

„Well, s-she wanted to stay with the fairy.",he stuttered again. Pull yourself together, he told himself.

„Fairy? So you are going with that?", she chuckled.

„If I can make her smile by pretending to be one, why not?",he responded, this time surprisingly confident.

Hawke noticed the change of tone as well and smiled even wider but this time warmer.

„I see. Didn't think you actually like children.", she comented. „You are a true treasure, Fenris.", she then added before Fenris could open his mouth.

He stared at her for a second, then gave her one of his rare smiles. They stood there for a while, but then Fenris was reminded of something.

„Hawke?", he began.

„Yes, Fenris?", she answered.

„Don't tell the abomination.", he finally said.

Hawke laughed a delightful laughter.

„Not a word.", she reassured.

„Fairy-nii-chan!", a high pitched voice shouted from afar which led Hawke's and Fenris's attention into that direction.

„Will you come, now?", Asuka then said and waved her hand at him.

„Well, oh mighty fairy, your kin awaits you now, I guess.", Hawke joked.

„Then I see you later. I promised that I would take care of her. And I cannot leave her to that blood mage.", Fenris then said.

„Don't destroy your fairyness, Fenris.", Hawke responded, with a playfully angered undertone. She then entered the guild.

* * *

After Hawke had finished her breakfast, given to her by Mirjane she sat and watched as the guild was steadily becoming fuller. Next to her sat Fenris,on his shoulder the little Asuka who was playing with his ears, grabbing them with her tiny hands and pulling them up and down. However the elf didn't lose a word on it. In fact it seemed like that didn't happen at all.

Hawke barely could hold back a laughter.

Merrill joined them at the table.

„What do you think is the matter that everyone seems so excited?", the dalish asked.

Hawke thought for a moment. There was a glimpse of a memory in her mind that she couldn't catch. She knew Mirajane told them yesterday. Why couldn't she remember? She hadn't too much wine yesterday, had she?

„We shall see.", was therefore all she replied.

Hawke decided to kill time by observing her guildmates. Many were gathering in small groups and talking joyfully about something. Somewhere she noticed Natsu and Gray argue again, while Anders stood between them to avoid a fight. Normally, she already knew, this was Erza's job, but the scarlet haired mage seemed to have found a soulmate in Aveline, so the redheads were rather busy with eachother than anyone else.

At the barcounter she spotted Isabela and the other brunette mage. What was her name again? Cana, or something like that.

It was only noon and the two of them already had finished a few bottles of booze. Cana had several cards spread in front of her. Was she a fortune teller? Isabela told her once, that there were whitches in Rivain who claimed to be able too look into the future. Perhaps this card thing from Cana made her feel like home. However Hawke couldn't imagine Isabela being homesick.

Suddenly she heard a scream and the next moment Gray landed between Cana and Isabela and Maker's breath, he was naked again!

„You will pay for this ,Flamebrain!", Gray shouted enraged.

„OH? THEN COME HERE AND F-", the pink haired mage was silenced by Anders and Gajeel, who pushed him down.

„Pull youself together, Salamander!", Gajeel hissed.

„You can solve this matter later, outside, far away!", Anders added.

Meanwhile Gray was still sitting between Isabela and Cana, still entirely naked and sweared quietly to himself.

Merrill blushed a deep red when she saw him and quickly covered her eyes, while Fenris rolled his eyes in annoyance.

Cana glared at him no less anoyed and from Isabela the black haired mage earned a wicked grin. It was only a matter of time until this would happen.

„You sure do like to present your delicious body, don't you?", the pirate purred seductavly.

„Yes, I feel more comfortable this way.", Gray replied, still annoyed by Natsu. He didn't notice Isabela's dirty thoughts. She grinned even wider and Hawke could see that her golden eyes began to shine suspiciously. She knew this shine. She always had it when she wanted something, be it a treasure, men or women. It meant that she would have it, one way or another. Was she really planning to seduce Gray?

At this thought Isabela began to shift closer to Gray.

„Well, darling, then I hope you don't mind if I-", Isabela began and already moved her hand to Gray's bare chest when she suddenly stopped. She began to tremble and slowly turned aroound.

Just when Hawke began to wonder she saw a shadow creep up on her back. First a blue hat decorated with white fur and a yellow flower showed itself and underneath it long, wavy hair in a lighter blue shade. Finally Hawke could see that the shadow that was creeping up on Isabela's back was a yound woman. She had eyes as blue and endless as the sea, pale skin and wore long robes which were decortated with white fur, fitting to her hat. She gazed at Isabela with a mad expression, as if she murdered her family.

„Love Rival...", the girl hissed agressivly into Isabela's face. The latter began to scream and in an instance she was behind Hawke.

„Isabela wha-", Hawke attempted to ask.

„LOVE RIVAL...", the blue haired woman hissed again and aproached Hawke.

„I-I am sorry...I-I, d-didn't know that h-he w-was your boyfriend...", Isabela stuttered.

The woman stopped. Her expression softened. Then she turned around and threw herself straight into Gray's arms.

„Oh, Gray-sama, I thought you were betraying me with this woman!", she sobbed.

The naked mage looked away and sighed annoyedly.

Hawke, Fenris, Merrill and Isabela had a puzzled expression on their faces, while observing the scene in front of them.

„I will never flirt so openly with a man again.", Isabela whispered, still obviously freaked out.

„What's with these mages?", Fenris asked, more to himself then really for recieving an answer and Hawke and Merrill remained silent.

„Juvia! That was rude! At least introduce yourself before you accuse someone of stealing Gray from you!", it was Mirajane who scolded the blue haired woman.

„Wait..", Gray tried to interfere, appearantly not happy with the stealing part.

„But she tried to steal my husband from me!", the young woman justified herself.

„I am hardly your husband!", Gray then shouted.

„Hawke-san and her freiends just joined our family recently. You still don't know them, so be polite and introduce yourself!", Mirajane replied and walked from behind the barcounter. She ignored Gray and pulled the other woman at her wrist back to Hawke. Isabela immediatly ducked behind Hawke when the two women stopped in front of them.

The blue haired woman glanced at Mirajane. Said woman returned a determined expression and jerked her head into Hawke's direction.

The blue haired woman then turned to Hawke.

„I-I'm Juvia. Pleased to meet you.", she then said surprisingly shy.

„Hawke."

„Fenris."

„And I am Merrill."

„So you are the fairies?", Juvia exclaimed upon seeing Merrill's and Fenris' pointy ears.

„For he last time, I am not a fairy, for Andraste's sake!", Fenris replied angrily.

„You are no fairy?", Asuka suddenly asked. Fenris looked up. He completly had forgtten that she was sitting on his shoulders, he was too stunned by Gray's exhibitional behaviour and their following consequences.

Sweet Maker, the child had seen all that!

He then tried to give Asuka his friendliest smile.

„Oh of course I am a fairy, but only too lovely litle girls like you!", the elf tried to put the child back at ease.

„Yes!", Asuka happily replied and proceeded playing with his ears and Hawke chuckeled at the sight. Never ever had she thought that he would be so good with children.

„Mirajane!", Hawke then called for the white haired waitress.

„What is actually the matter? The guild is so full and everyone is so excited.", Hawke finally managed to ask.

„But we told you yesterday! Master will announce the official team for The Grand Magic Games."; Mirajane responded.

That was it! This whole situation still seemed so unreal to her, especially this magic touranement.

Just then everyone turned their attention to the stage next to the barcounter.

The master stepped on it and in front of them all. Then he began to speak.

„My dear brats, today is a special day, for I have several anouncments to make.

First: I will retire as guild master."

Everyone gasped. That seemed to be a tough revelation for the mages.

„Second: I will now introduce your new master. He stands right there.", he proceeded and pointed at Mirajane. Was she the new guild master? The still guild master then turned into that particular direction only to see said woman standing there which appearantly wasn't quite what he had expected.

„Where is Gildarts?", he asked confused.

„He left a letter for you, Master.", Mirajane answered and handed him the white envelope.

Makarov took it and opened it. His expression turned from surprise to utter shock in a heartbeat as he read the letter he recieved.

He read it out loud when somebody asked what was written in it. This Gildarts appearantly had no intention on becoming guild master. He prefered traveling around, adventuring, wherever the wind may take him.

„...so my first and only acts as a guild master will be naming the guild master after me. Makarov will be the sixth guild master...", the retired and newly named guild master read.

Hawke sure never saw someone retiring and going back to work this quickly.

„...and I order that you will recognize Laxus as a full member of the guild once again.", the master finished the letter.

Everyone turned to the blonde haired, tall guy at the end of the room. He was hugged by his friends, a tall masked guy, a young man with long green hair and a lady with glasses, while they cried tears of happiness.

Hawke wondered what might have happened that he was perhaps banished from the guild for a time. However she saw him with the master when she arrived so that didn't quite match. She would ask if given the time.

„And finally the third and most important anouncement. The team for the Grand Magic Games...", the master went ahead.

The mages returned their undivided attention to the master again. In anticipation they awaited the revelation that would follow.

„The five mages of you that will represent the guild will be:

Erza...". This one didn't seem to be much of a surprise particularly.

„Natsu...". The pink haired mage grinned widely. „I'm all fired up...", he said, mostly to himself.

„Gray...". Was it really a good idea to put those two in a team? In this moment Gray didn't look like he cared. Instead he smiled smuggly.

„Lucy...": The blonde girl looked up in surprise, an emotion everyone else shared with her in the room. Varric put his hand on her shoulder.

„You'll make it, Princess.", he said reassuringly. She gulped, clealy cought out of guard. „I hope you are right, Varric-san.", she replied.

Now only one place was left to be given. One of these mages, would represent the guild at the tournament. The seconds that passed until the master spoke again felt like hours and the pressure of waiting became unbearable. Who would be the fifth mage in this team?

„and Wendy!"


	4. A dark enemy

_Hello everyone and welcome back to the fourth chapter of this magnificent crossover! I am truly sorry that it took me this long, but I had t write two essays at once, However I managed to work steadily on this one. You see, I haven't given up on this project yet and I hope I will be able to make a good fanfiction out of it. And I want to thank all my loyal readers who see potential in this and keep supporting me. Truly, your joy is my motivation to keep going._

 _But enough of my talk. Enjoy the brand new chapter. :)_

* * *

 **Chapter 4: A dark enemy:**

It had been decided. The team that would represent the guild at the Grand Magic Games stood.

Wendy gasped silently when she heard her name. Her big, brown eyes stared intensly at the master while she tried to find even the smallest sign, the tinest hint on him that would reveal that he was joking, that he just wanted to scare her for fun but in reality he had somebody else in mind.

But the master remained silent, his expression hardened, but not like he was concerned or worried, rather because he wanted to point out that he would not change his decision unless there would be a very serious reason.

Hawke saw how the blue haired girl quietly lookd at the ground. She was scared, there was no doubt and Hawke could understand it.

Wendy was still a child after all, and her magic wasn't offensive, she was a healer. That would be like sending Anders to the front line while fighting a horde of dark spawn. Hawke shook her head at the thought. Not a very smart move to be perfectly honest, however the master was no fool, chaotic sometimes, but not a fool. She wondered what he saw in her or did she not see everything? Either way the apostate decided to walk over to her.

Hawke knelt before the girl and carefully placed a hand on her shoulder. Wendy looked into her face, fear written into it.

A comforting smile spread on the face of the elder woman.

„Don't be afraid.", Hawke said warmly. „You'll be allright if you give it your best. I am sure the master knows what he does.", she reassured further.

Actually she was not so sure if the master was aware of what he did or if giving the best was enough, but it was not important either. What was important was that the fear abondened Wendy's face and Hawke smiled even brighter when she saw that the Sky Dragon Slayer smiled back.

„Right!", Wendy nodded.

The next moment Hawke found herself and Wendy surrounded by the other representatives. They looked into the grinning faces of Natsu, Gray, Erza and Lucy.

The scarlet haired warrioress stepped an inch closer to them.

„As long as we all work together...", Erza began her speech and Hawke understood that this was going to all.

...we will not fall, we will not fail..."

Everyone in the room fixed on her now. Even Cana and Isabela listened.

„...we will fight, until the very last second we shall not give up. They may think we are weak, but we will prove them wrong, prove to them what Fairy Tail really is. Remember your companions, your comarades, your friends, your family. Believe in them and we will be victorious!"

If anybody had any doubt about the tournament it was silenced with Erza's last sentence. Every mage in the room cheered and clapped to her arousing speech that set their hearts on fire. Hawke could see Aveline smile at her her widest smile she had. Varric was clapping and cheering with everyone else, so did Anders. Merrill looked at the armed mage with an undefinable expression and Fenris stared at her, mouth opened. Hawke went back on her feet and the moment she stood Erza once again comanded the masses. She tore her arm into the air, her index finger solely pointed at the ceiling. As Hawke began to wonder what that sign would mean Erza began to shout:

„FOR FAIRY TAIL!"

The mages responded the same way. They rose their arms like she did, like it was entirely normal to them to point at some imaginary point right above that Hawke couldn't see.

„FAIRY TAIL!"

Erza answered them.

„FAIRY TAIL!"

And they shouted back.

„FAIRY TAIL!"

And Erza replied with even more heated passion.

„FAIRY TAIL!"

And this time Hawke finally comprehended the dynamic which suddenly formed between the mages. Without further thinking she went with the crowd. She tore her arm high up like the rest of them. From the corners of her eyes she saw that Anders, Merrill and even Aveline and Isabela were captured by the wave of excitement that already had the others in its unbreakable grasp.

They shouted all together, simultaniously, like it was their war cry.

„FAIRY TAIL!"

* * *

Isabela watched Cana holding a card in her hand. On it was the face of a copper haired man and a hint of a beard. The brunette woman looked at it silently for a while, then a witty smile spread on her face.

„I told you, not to act like a father, old man!", she shouted and was about to tear the card apart. But before she could do so her hands were stopped by a darker skinned, gloved pair. Cana's dark purple eyes lifted to find Isabela's golden eyes locked on hers.

„Is this man your father?", the rivaini pirate asked.

„I...uhm...yes.", Cana muttered. The card mage didn't know what to make out of this situation.

„And what does this card do? It does something, doesn't it? You told me that your magic works through these kind of cards.", Isabela insisted to know.

„It's a phone card.", Cana answered and her voice gave away that she felt slightly cornered by Isabelas interrogation. When she noticed the puzzled look on the pirate's face she proceeded.

„He gave it to me, so I can call him, whenever I need him. Even if he is far away at the moment. He said he would come."

„I see...", Isabela mumbled and Cana could swear that there was sadness in her voice.

„But I don't want him to be like that, I don't need...", Cana began to explain her behaviour, but was cut off.

„Keep it.", Isabela said simply but determined.

„I don't need to...I mean I can take care of myself, I always did.", Cana responded then. Isabela only shook her head at that.

„Bullshit, sweetness. It's not about your need. But a paent's love and concern is a precious thing. Trust me, I know what I am talking about. Besides, you don't know if you really will not need him.", Isabela said, and with every sentence she said her voice became shakier.

Now Cana understood why Isabela wanted her to keep the card. She just wanted to make sure that her relationship to her father will not be lost and she comprehended that those were the words of someone who desperatly yearned for the love of a parent. The card mage wondered what might have happened to Isabela's parents or if she ever had any, but she decided not to bother the elder woman about it.

„Isabela...", she whispered, compassion wrapped around this name. She heard the pirate gulp quietly when she let go of her hands. They were wrapped around hers all the time, without moving even a little bit.

„Just keep the card. Excuse me...I need a drink.", Isabela said and walked passed the mage to Mirajane at the barcounter.

What Isabela actually wanted to say, and Cana knew that, was _Keep your father and his love for you in your heart and never forget it, for it is the most precious treasure you will ever know._

* * *

„Alright! I'm so fired up!", Natsu shouted and bumped his fire covered fist into his palm. He stood between Lucy and Hawke, when he threw these words straight into Gray's face. Next to the half naked ice mage stood Anders, who was as little impressed as Gray by Natsu's little show act.

„Don't rush it, Flame-brain. We still got 3 months to go before you can fire anything up.", Gray comented.

„Shaddup already, will ya? What do you know about my strength, Stripper Freak?!"

„Enough!", Erza intervened.

„Yes!", both mages immediatly straightened themselves when Erza rose her voice to silence them.

They really reminded Hawke of Fenris and Anders and she wondered if Erza would manage to get _her_ two self named bitter-enemies-for-a-life time to be so obediant like she did to Natsu and Gray. Or better. If Hawke herself, would one day get them to work together, only by her comand.

„However...", the scarlet haired warrioress spoke again. „...Gray is not entirely wrong, Natsu. Remember, we have missed 7 years, in which everything could have happened. Our old friends became stronger for sure and there might be others we still don't know to begin with. This means we have to use the remaining 3 months for a good training, to be able to stand even he smallest chance against the other guilds."

„And how do we do that?", Merrill asked. She wasn't sure how they wanted to compensate 7 years of missed evolvement in but 3 months.

Aveline, Varric and Fenris also gave Erza a sceptical look. By now Aveline and Erza had built up a close friendship, so she was sticking to Erza wherever she went, the same was for Hawke, Varric and Merrill towards Lucy and Fenris just followed Hawke around, so he also ended up in this little group discussion about magical training and strenght evolution. And Anders became close freinds with Gray and Natsu.

„How about we ask Porlyusika-san for help?", Lucy suggested after a moment of thinking.

„Not...that old witch again...", Fenris moaned.

„She is a bit...difficult sometimes, I admit. But she may know something that will help us with our training.", Lucy explained.

„And how would that ill tampared hag do that?", Varric asked. He still remembered their last encounter all too fondly. Quite lovely how she threw them out of her house after they just have awakened in a complete different world.

„Oh, I know! She's a healer, right? She may know some potion or somethin' that will give us a powerup boost!", Natsu spoke excitedly.

„I really doubt that this is possible through a potion, but we can try.", Anders said.

„So it has been decided. We wil first go to Porlyusika-san and ask her for help.", Erza determined their next step and everyone nodded. Perhaps she really would know something that could help them.

* * *

Deep in the forest of Magnolia stood Porlyusika in front of her small, wooden house, a garden scissors in her hand. She was busy with cutting the rose bushes into shape which decorated her front door. While she did that she enjoyed the peaceful silence around her. Only the chirping of the birds and the noise of the wind that danced through the leaves could be heard. She sighed satisfied. How she loved her solitude in the protecting mantle of mother nature.

Suddenly, the wind spead up. Its strength caused her pale pink hair to fly into her mature face, so she had to lay down the garden scissor to brush her locks away from her sharp red eyes. As she did so she saw that the sky darkened. Was this a storm that came unexpectedly fast?

Then a glass shattering voice found its way through the trees to her ear. It was a cry that could destroy the bravest hearts of the strongest mages and generals. The devastating cry of a dragon.

Porlyusika tried to determine the direction from which the mighty roar was piercing through the air. It was aproaching, and finally the sociophobe healer could say from where it was coming.

She turned around to the path in front of her that lead through the forest and to the city. The shadow of the beast ascended onto the ground and bathed her surroundings in even more darkness. Its deadly claws grasped the earth and almost tore parts of it including grass and roots with it away and its wing produced an unimaginable swirl of wind that Porlyusika feared her little house that suddenly seemed so fragile compared to the legendary monster, would be left as a bunch of dust, for a second.

Slowly the beast lowered its wings and the wind ceased. Porlyusika took a closer look at the dragon before her.

Enormous horns were growing from its head, golden eyes that stared firely at her, teeth as sharp as swords ready to tear her into pieces and dark purple skin that shined somewhat threatening as the darkness that formed around the dragon slowly escaped and let the sun shine onto it.

Every other man would be runnung for their life right now. But not Porlyusika. She stood calmly in front of the beast. Even if she knew the dragon could easily devour her by now, she knew it would not, for she knew who it really was.

The dark aura which darkened the day earlier appeared again but now circling around the dragon. Black light pierced through its cracking skin. The gigantic body slowly fell apart into a million pieces, releasing the radiating rays of the dark light from beneath,

First the light had no defineable form, then it shaped itself into a ball and when Porlyusika observed how it changed its shape into that of a human she couldn't help but grin a cruel, smug smile.

The human shape became clearer and clearer. First she saw the metalic headpiece of the woman, decorated with white horns which pointed behind her. Under it white long hair swirling around her mature face and neck through the wind. Golden eyes which reminded her of the eyes of a snake each time she looked at them, painted with dark purple eyeshadow and lips also painted with a dark red that almost seemed like black on her pale skin. Her dark red robe, laced with black feathers and metal pearls completed her intimidating yet fascinating look.

„Flemeth.", Porlyusika laughed an unhappy laughter.

Flemeth smiled as cruely.

„It has been a long time, my dear friend.", the mysterious witch of the wilds replied and gracefully walked closer to the healer.

„A long time indeed.", Porlyusika answered.

Flemeth stopped just an inch in front of Porlyusika. The pink haired woman fixed her gaze on the witch, expression hardened as if her face turned to stone. Only her breath extinguished her from a statue in that fateful moment.

„But my dear Grandine, why so cold?", Flemeth asked slowly, tasting out every word she brought out.

„Don't call me by that name...!", the other mage muttered. It was not the most welcome encounter, so much could be said so far. However it did not surprise Porlyusika really either. From the moment on she found Hawke and her companions in the forest she knew that it it was only the beginning of something greater, and it was only a matter of time until Flemeth would reveal her envolvement in the spiral of events that were still to come.

„Oh? My apologies. I forgot about this new life you started.", Flemeth than laughed

„So this was your doing, Flemeth.", Porlyusika confronted the witch.

„Could you be more precise? I did many things, you know. Like coming here and visit you, old friend.", Flemeth answered. Porlyusika gritted her teeth. Flemeth was not taking her really seriously. She played with her and it made Porlyusika mad.

„Stop playing around Flemeth. I'm in no mood for such pleasantries! If you have to tell me something then say it and begone!", Porlyusika then made clear. She was holding tightly onto herself for keeping herself from shouting.

„I have to tell you something indeed. But before I go on, a word of advice: Do something about this rudeness of yours. It is slowly becoming infuriating!", Flemeth answered and the calmness her voice had before slowly vanished with each word of her last sentence.

„It is none of your buisness. Say what you have to say and go!", somehow Porlyusika manged to remain collected. She didn't really know why she was so harsch towards the witch. It was not like Porlyusika would had any chance in combat against her, should it come to a fight. Pehaps it was because her spite towards the elder woman was even greater and thus more powerful than her fear from her.

„You can count yourself lucky that your death is of no use to me.", Flemeth answered now coldly. By now even her cruel smile had dissappeared from her wrinkled face.

„You are behind the portal, are you? You are responsible for Hawke's arrival in this world!",the healer then accused her.

„Yes.", the witch responded.

„You are admitting it?", Porlyusika asked.

„And why not? It will not change the situation if you knew. It is true that the elven mage played an important role in invoking the Eluvian, but it would not have been possible with my doing either,", Flemeth clarified.

„And what are your intentions? What are you aiming for by conecting two diffrent worlds to eachother through an unstabil portal?", Porlyusika demanded to know.

„Oh, Grandine. There are still dark clouds to come upon all of us. We will have to confront an enemy with power far beyond our comprehension. A few capable allies will be of utter importance.",Flemeth responded.

„So you are making alliances? Between Fairy Tail and Hawke?", Porlyusika tried to understand the witch.

„Hawke is fated to play an important role when doom comes for us all. What she decides will decide the destiny of her world. And the hidden power of Fairy Tail is unkown to the dark forces that are gathering their strength now. A great advantage, don't you think?",Flemeth answered.

Porlyusika gave her best to understand what Flemeth was up to. She could never undestand the witch and her moves. They always seemed ilogical to her, or at least at the beginning. However later whatever measures she took turned out to be decisive for her survival. Flemeth was planning ahead, so Porlyusika knew she talked about the future, though she did not know how she looked into it. But she did and she saw a dark future that interfered with her plans, whatever they were. To avoid that she wanted to use an alliance between Hawke and Fairy Tail which she believed was powerful enough to challenge this dark enemy she was talking about.

„And what is my role in all of this?", Porlyusika asked.

„You will see that Hawke and her companions will return when the time is right.", Flemeth answered.

„When shall that be, if I may ask?", Porlyusika asked once again.

„When it becomes possible. You will soon see, old friend.", the witch responded.

„And what makes you so certain that I will obey?"

„Oh you will do as I please. Not for me but for them. Even though you like to act cold I know deep inside you are not. Your compassion ultimatley will guide you, Grandine. And also, don't forget that I have means...to make you do what I want, If I wish to.", Flemeth clarified.

Porlyusika's breath quickened against her will and she gulped, a pitiful try to swallow her fear from the witch. Would she really...?

„And as we are talking our young friends are already heading to this direction. You shall tell them nothing of our little meeting, Grandine. Is that understood?", Flemeth comanded.

Before Porlyusika could think she heard herself answer: „Understood."

The elder woman smiled at that response. Then she walked away from her, back to the spot where she landed in her dragon form and turned around one last time.

„Until we meet again, Grandine.", she bade the healer farewell.

Once again dark clouds and shadows began to dance around the witch. Her body dematerialized and became one with the shadows embracing her and rose with them into the sky. However Porlyusika kept staring at the spot where she stood earlier. She didn't lift her gaze from it even when the dark clouds above her turned into the dragon from before that now flew away with its mighty wing beats.

Soon it dissappeard and the sky became clear again. The sun shined and the birds in the forest sang their songs as if nothing had happened. For Porlyusika the encounter felt somehow unreal now, like a dream. She placed a hand on her forehead and struggeled to keep herself standing, for she suddenly felt dizzy and a distand pain was spreading in her skull.

That was why she hated people.

* * *

„Who is this Porlyusika anyway?", Louis asked while he was flying next to Anders. The Warden thought for a moment before he answered.

„I don't really know her myself, but she is a healer and seems to avoid any kind of company."

„She is our Medical Advisor.", Erza then interfered.

„I thought Anders and Wendy-chan were your healers.", the exceed then said.

„That is true. But Porlyusika-san is older and wiser than Wendy-chan and Anders-san. She knows more of healing and deals with more...serious matters.", she clarified as an answer.

„I see. So you are not that great of a healer, Anders.", Louis then turned to Anders.

The mage frowned.

„What was that with 'You saved my life' and „If it wasn't for you, I would be dead. Please let me make it up to you'?",Anders asked in an angry, yet sarcastic tone. He saw Hawke smiling at them, clearly amused by their little argument. Anders blushed slightly and was relieved the next moment, when Erza announced that they arrived at their destination.

Before them stood the small wooden hut of the unfriendly healer. He hadn't really much hope for this, but it was for the others at least worth a try.

Erza was the one who aproached the door of the hut. Confidently she knocked at it and took a step back to wait patiently for the elder woman to answer. After a few seconds the door opened a bit, only enough for Porlyusika's head to fit through.

„What?", she greeted them as charming as always. Anders already knew it was a waste of time.

„Porlyusika-san. It is good to see you well and sound.", Erza pretended not to be offended.

„Ah yes, thanks for your concern, child but you cannot fool me. What is it you want from me that let you stumble in front of my door.", the healer asked sharply.

„We hoped that you cold help us with the Grand Magic Games, like give us a magical power up boost, Grandma Porlyusika!", Natsu shouted.

„Natsu!", Lucy scolded him. Anders rolled his eyes. Maker, did this guy know anything about tact?

„What Natsu was trying to say is that we would be most greatful if you could help us with our training, Porlyusika-san.", Erza attemped to correct Natsu and bowed before the elder woman. The people here bowed a lot before eachother, Anders thought while observing the armed mage.

„No, I cannot.", Porlyusika said quickly and was already closing her door.

„But-", Erza tried again but was cut off.

„I said no! Why can't you people understand that I hate humans-", Porlyusika responded angrily.

„But we aren't exactly humans...", Merrill attempted to convince her and pointed at Fenris, Varric and herself while she did so.

„-or any other creatures that can annoy me with their talk. Now leave!", the healer almost shouted and shut the door agressevly before them.

„What's with this old hag?", Fenris moaned annoyed.

„How exactly did she become your Medical Advisor when she doesn't want to to talk to anyone?", Varric asked, half angry and half honestly curious.

„She and Gramps are close friends.", Natsu answered.

 _And how is firendship possible with that sort of person to begin with?_ , Varric wanted to ask as well but ultimatly kept it to himself. There were just people who managed to get along with the most horrible persons in the world.

„And now?", Hawke asked.

„Guess we'll have to use the ordinary ways: Plenty of good training before the tournament. And let's hope our courage will be enough to win this.", Lucy suggested.

Just then they noticed a silent sob amongst them. As they tried to locate its source they saw that it was Wendy who was crying silently.

Immediatly all of them surrounded her. Even Fenris felt pity for the young mage as he saw her like that. Charle was trying to comfort her without any success.

„Aww, don't listen to her nonsense, little one.", Varric said as gently as he could and placed his hands on the girl's shoulders.

„Varric-san is right. She is just like that!", Lucy agreed and went next to Varric.

„N~No, it's not that...", Wendy sobbed.

„But what made you so sad then?", Varric asked.

„H~Her smell...", Wendy tried to explain.

„Her smell? She didn't seem dirty to me?", Merrill responded confused.

„I~It's like the smell of...Grandine...", Wendy truly struggled to bring anything out under her tears.

The younger guild mages froze immediatly and Natsu even began to tremble.

„What did you say...?", the pink haired dragon slayer muttered.

„What? What is actually happening here? Who is Grandine?", Hawke demanded to know. She and her companions were completly thrown out of concept by now.

For a moment Wendy tried to swallow her tears. She took a deep breath before she answered as her tears continued to roll down her cheeks.

„The...dragon who raised me...my mother..."

Hawke's eye's widened. Was that unfriendly woman really the dragon who raised Wendy? Memories of Flemeth flodded her mind when she tried to make this new gained information somehow comprehensible to herself.

„I'm not the Sky Dragon, child.", a female, rich voice said behind them. They turned to see Porlyusika standing behind them. Appearantly she decided to leave her hut after all.

„But your smell...", Wendy said.

„I know and it is long story that I am willing to tell you, to make things clear."

„Now this is sure going to be exciting. The smell of a person is a unique chracateristic. It cannot exist twice in the world.", Aveline explained and shot the healer a puzzled glance.

„Somehow I am Grandine. Your nose did not lie to you.", Porlyusika began. But this didn't clear anything up, it made the group before her look even more questioning. „And then you decided to leave the child behind, after you realized you hate people?", Anders asked sharply.

„I haven't finished yet, you fool of a healer!", Porlyusika shut him up. Fenris chuckled slightly amused behind him. Anders turned and gave a frown into the elf's direction which was honored with a witty grin that drove Anders nearly mad.

„You already know of Edolas.", Porlyusika began again. And when they nodded in agreement she proceeded.

„I am actually from Edolas. Long ago a portal opened and threw me into this world. Ever since I was not able to return nor had I the wish to. I am the Grandine of Edolas, Wendy."

Porlyusika exhaled after she finished her last sentence. Hawke and her companions looked at her irritatedly. So she, who found them, was also from another world? And they all began to wonder if it really was mere coincindence that she was the one who found them.

„So, you are ...not my mother?", Wendy asked depresssed and it broke Varric's heart.

„I am sorry, I am not.", Porlyusika answered with a slight hint of pity in her voice.

Wendy looked to the ground, almost about to cry again. Varric put one of his arms around her shoulders and pulled her close in an attempt to comfort her. He couldn't stand to see the child suffer this way before him.

„But I have met the Sky Dragon.", Porlyusika spoke again. Everyone looked at her again. Wendy suddenly rose her head and fixed her with her big, brown eyes, hope shimmering in her innocent gaze. All of them were curious about what the healer was about to tell them about the Sky Dragon. They eagerly awaited her response while the seconds seemed like hours as they passed during the silence that Porlyusika maintained.

„And she left something for you...", Porlyusika then proceeded. She moved her right arm behind her back and into her red cape. When it came out of her cape again she held a few sealed scrolls in her hand.

„These are for you...", she said warmly and handed them to Wendy. The Sky Dragon Slayer delicatly took them and eyed them for a moment, then gave the healer a puzzled look.

„These are powerful magical spells for you. Grandine entrusted them to me befor she vanished. She wanted me to give them to you, if I should ever meet you. She wanted you to master them and become a strong mage."

„For me?", Wendy asked timidly, tears began to fill her eyes again. The Medical Advisor nodded.

„This is her legacy for you."

„Thank you, Prlyusika-san.", Wendy sobbed and bowed deeply before the woman. Surprisingly Porlyusika smiled slightly at Wendy, but then turned around.

„But now, you should really leave. I have nothing else for you.", she said.

* * *

Later that day Lucy, Erza, Hawke, Varric, Merrill, Anders, Fenris and Aveline returned to the guild, without any clue how to start their training. Perhaps Erza was the only one who felt confident about herself nontheless. Wendy left the group and took only Charle with her. She had apologized as awfully polite as she was, while she told them that she wanted to try the spells which were described in the scrolls that Porlyusika had given her and went off. Lucy and Erza had calmed Varric down, when he had tried to object about the little girl wandering off in the forest on her own.

Soon after that Gray and Natsu had split off from the group, with the same excuse. However it was no surprise that these two, especially Natsu were keen on participating at the tournament, so it was only natural that they wanted to present themselves in their best shapes. And so the young men had taken their leave, acompanied by Happy.

Hawke sighed quietly when Mirajane put a mug of booze in front of her and took the seat right next to her. The mage rose her head to see that also Isabela was placing herself infront of her, with Cana at her side.

„My treat.", the pirate said.

„How...?", Hawke attempted to ask.

„Oh please, Hawke. Even a blind can see that you are concerned.", Isabela responded quickly.

„So waht's wrong?", Mirajane asked softly.

„It's just this whole situation. I am a little bit scared of the tournament.", Hawke admitted. They had been out to find a way to improve their abilities and came back without even the smallest improvement. How will they survive the Gand Magic Games?

„It will be allright. We will have a training camp the next three months. I am sure we will all figure something out.", Mirajane said.

„A training camp?", Hawke asked insecure. Mirajane nodded.

„We will travel to a place near the capital. It will be a combination of training and also a bit of vacation and fun time, to relax the nerves."

„Vacation, Fun Time? This sounds like something I like. Tell me more.", Isabela said and took a sip from her wine glass.

„As if you were so hard working...", Aveline interfered and rolled her eyes at the pirate.

„Hey, I'm taking as much part as you in Hawke's work.", Isabela responded.

„You are both great companions for ass kicking, please leave it there.", Hawke said, now slightly amused, then she turned to Mirajane:

„How can we afford this in the first place?"

„Don't worry about that. We still have some money for these kind of things. Also we are many, so we will have a discount at the inn we will be staying at", the white haired waitress answered.

„Just take the oportunity, darling and be thankful. Finally a bit of vacation for you. A nice change from all the politics and work you were doing back in Kirkwall.", Isabela said. Hawke nodded at that.

„Yes, I guess you are right."

„And when will we be going?", Anders now asked.

„In two days.", Mirajane responded.

„Yay, we are going to the beach!", Asuka shouted as she heard the others talk about the 3 months that were still to come. She sat on Fenris' lap and ate a small strawberry cake, the elf had bought for her. He had no idea what to think of that. What would he do, while everyone would be practicing magic? If he could he wouldn't go, but he had no other choice. Fenris hoped he would find plenty of other things there he could distract himself with, while the rest played Tevinter.

„And what will we do until then?", Merrill was the one to ask.

„How about you spend the afternonn at my place?", Lucy suggested.

„At your place?", Aveline asked surprised. The blonde mage nodded.

„Yes, you are our comrades now, so it's only normal that I should invite you for a visit."

„That's a great idea! Then you can show me your work, Princess.", Varric said happily and was refering to Lucy's writing she told him about when they first arrived.

* * *

So Hawke and her companions followed Lucy to her home, acompanied by Erza and Anders' cat Louis.

They reached one of the canals that flowed through the city. Lucy went straight to the edge of the pavement and walked on it. They followed her further as she balanced herself to her home. A boat passed through the canal. Two men were sitting in it:

„Lucy-chan, that's dangerous!", one of them shouted.

„Yes!", Lucy shouted back and they watched as the boat passed by. After another while Lucy stopped in front of a wooden door, right across the canal. It belonged to an orange painted house. It had a roof of red bricks and on the upper half a wooden balcony. Not a luxurious estate but still a lovely home.

Lucy reached for the bunch of keys which hung at the belt around her waist. As Lucy was searching for the right one among several others, Hawke noticed that there were many strange looking golden and silver keys. They didn't look like they would fit into any door or chest lock and she wondered for what someone would need that many keys anyway. Her thoughts were interrupted by the door that now opened, before Lucy could pick her key to open it herself. A short, dark haired woman with glasses on her nose stepped out of the house. She was old and her hands were put on her wide waist.

„Landlady?", Lucy muttered.

„I'm still waiting for the rent, girl!"

„I still don't have any money..?", Lucy stuttered again.

„Look, girl, your rent for the past seven years has been payed by someone else. I think you had plenty of time to come around with this months rent at least!", the landlady said.

Hawke felt sorry for Lucy. She could easily imagine that this place had its price and considering the guild's reputation it was only natural that she had not enough money. The Champion had seen the job requests on the board in the guild. There weren't really many jobs and the ones that were hanging there weren't even well payed either. And for the first time the thedosians received a diiferent impression of mages. Even Fenris had to admit, these people were ordinary beings, trying to make a living, nothing more.

„But I...", they heard her convincing her landlady quite unseccesfully.

„I will not accept further delays!", the landlady answered. And when everyone thought that they would spent the afternoon preventing the woman from throwing Lucy out of her home, Varric stepped in.

„If I may interfere, my lady.", the dwarf began and stepped between Lucy and the landlady. „And you are?", the landlady asked.

„Varric Tethras, merchant, storyteller, and uncle of this lovely girl right behind me.", he introduced himself and pointed with his thumb at Lucy. Said mage had a puzzled gaze on her face that expressed her confusion of this situation all too well.

Varric was going to lie for Lucy and she tried to prevent it but was silenced by Hawke.

„Just let him do his thing.", Hawke whispered to the blonde mage, while Erza was held back by Aveline.

„Oh really? It's the first time I hear about an...uncle.", the landlady responded suspiciously. Fenris had to surpress a chuckle.

„You see, I travel a lot and I don't find it very often in my time to pay her a visit. But that is not important, my lady. I understand that there are some financial issues between you two?", Varric spun his lie further.  
„That is correct. I let the rent for seven be payed by someone else for her, but now that she returned, I think it is bearble for her to pay me for this month. I'm also trying to afford a living.", the landlady responded.

„Oh of cours, my lady and you shall not renounce this right. Allow me to pay for my niece's rent this month. She is really having a hard time right now.", Varric now said and grabbed something in his pocket.

„But...!", Lucy tried to decline Varric's help. The dwarf only shook his head.

„Take it as an apology that I didn't visit you any sooner, my dear niece!.", Varric than said and winked his eye at Lucy. Then he turned his attention to the landlady again.

„These are coins from the far lands I have been traveling through. They are pure gold and very valuable. Please accept them as payment for this month's rent, my lady.", he said while he put a small bag full of the sovereigns he happened to carry around. The landlady opened the bag to check its contents and widened her eyes as she found it full of gold coins. She opened her mouth to say something, however was silenced by Varric's hands that wrapped around her hand with the coin bag in it.

„I hope these will be enough, my lady", he said with a soft tone. The landlady blushed and smiled timidly.

„Oh, uh, more than enough, it would seem...", she chuckeled nervously.

„Good, I suggest you spent this gold on some lovely jewelry. I am certain an elegant necklace will bring out your majestic beauty just perfectly.", Varric purred. The landlady chuckled even more nervously.

„Oh, please, you emberass me...", they heard her say between her laughters. Hawke shook her head and sighed while she observed the show that the dwarf was putting on in front of her. Lucy, who stood next to her, remained silent and watched with round eyes and an opened mouth. She was too buffled to say or do anything.

„Allright.", the landlady finally said.

„Consider this and the next month as payed, girl. But the month afterwards I await your rent on time.", she ended. Lucy still couldn't say anything and just watched her landlady leave the house. She waved her hand at Varric and smiled at him sheepishly before she turned around the next corner and vanished.


	5. Celestial Spirits

_Hello, everyone and welcome back to "Companions". First I want to apologize that it took me so long to update the story, but studying kept me occupied and normally when I come home from a day of writing I don't want to write some more, so the only reason I turn on the PC is for cute cat videos on YouTube and gaming. And I am blabbering too much again and before I drift off into endless memories of my childhood, please enjoy th new chapter. :)_

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Celestial Spirits**

„Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!", Lucy screamed with eyes as wide open as her mouth became when she formed this question to stress her disbelief and confusion towards Varric's little seduction act.

Said dwarf turned around in a swift movment to face a startled Lucy. Varric smirked at her: „No need to thank me, Princess."

„You...you just lied to my landlady!", Lucy exclaimed.

Varric's smirk vanished.

„Hey, I just helped out a little bit. And we didn't betray her or something. She recieved her money, didn't she. And you don't need to be thrown out of your home so shortly before your big event.", Varric explained.

„B-But, your not even my uncle...a-and you paid my rent. That is-", Lucy stutterd and was interrupted by Varrics big, gloved hand on her shoulder.

„Princess, let me ask you something:", Varric began and Lucy became silent immeditaly.

„Didn't your guild say that we are a family?", he asked.

Lucy nodded.

„And you made us part of this family?", he proceeded.

Another nodd.

„And as far as I know you help each other out in a family, right?", he asked once again.

Lucy slowly began to understand and nodded helplessly once again.

„So that is what I just did, helped you out as your family. Even if I am not your uncle by blood, Through Hawke I am part of the guild and thus your family. So stop worrying about it, you don't need to repay me the money. I still have plenty of it."

„Varric-san...", Lucy smiled warmly.

The blonde mage then turned back to the door of her apartement. She excluded a metal key from the other golden and silver keys. Compared to the others pretty much unspectacular looking, Lucy opened the wooden entrance.

„Well, everyone, this is my home. Please make yourselves comfortable.", she anounced and let the thedosians enter.

„Oh and please take off your shoes-", Lucy wanted to ask her guests but her attention was drawn to a very familiar intruder.

„Yo, Lucy!", Natsu greeted who was sitting on her couch in the middle of the room.

„Who let you in?!", Lucy shouted and her eyes nearly fell out of her face.

„Why are you so angry?", Happy asked. The blue cat was either a brilliant actor or was really that ignorant.

„Perhaps because you keep breaking into my home without my permission?! What the hell are you doing here anyway?!", was Lucy's furious response. Hawke and her companions watched in a weird mixture of awe and confusion. The Champion of Kirkwall concluded that tese kind of actions appearantly happened very often.

„Got hungry. Thought you might have somethin' to eat.", the pink haired mage replied.

The young woman inhaled and exhaled with a heavy, defeated sigh.

„All right, I was going to prepare some snacks anyway. But do me a favor and don't mess anything up."

Natsu's face lighted up in an instant and he smiled widely.

„Aye!", he and Happy answered simultaniously.

Hawke chuckled silently, Watching Lucy and Natsu, Hawke could easily relae to the feeling of taking care of children. But more than that she could see that Natsu's and Lucy's bond was one of deep trust and warmth. Even though Lucy scolded her guild mate she never was actually angry. Even now. Lucy returned to smile immeditaly and offered her other guests to make themselves comfortable once again while she rushed into the kitchen to prepare some snacks and something to drink for all of them.

„Thank you, Lucy. I truly apreciate your hospitlity, but let me help you with the snacks.", Hawke quickly offered.

Lucy nodded:" Thanks, Amal-chan." Hawke smiled at the use of her first name and followed Lucy into the kitchen.

From the corner of her eye she could see that Fenris wanted to follow them wordlessly.

„Can I help, too?", Merrill then asked timidly. Lucy stopped and turned to the elven mage.

„Of course you can!", Lucy laughed.

Shortly after she entered the kitchen the blonde mage took a colourful vessel, painted with all sorts of flowers and butterflies from the kitchen counter. She opened it and with her fingers she took a bundle of herbs from it and put it into a pot which was filled with water. She put the pot on her cooker and turned one of the buttons underneath it. Afterwads she waked to a white, strange capboard and opened it. Light streamed from it, while Lucy put seemingly all sorts of vegetables out of it.

Hawke, Merrill and Fenris stared at the weird construction in fron of them. After Lucy closed it and turned around she noticed the buffled looks of her guests.

„Is something the matter?", Lucy asked insecurely.

„What ist that weird glowing capboard and don't you need fire to brew the tea?", Merrill asked.

„Have you never seen a refrigirator?", Lucy asked back.

„A what?", Fenris blurted out. Lucy made her familiar big, round eyes when she was confused.

„Don't you have refrigirators in your world?" the blonde mage asked. Only puzzled faces gave Lucy the answer she actually already knew.

„Then let me explain: a refrigirator is basically a capboard that keeps your food cool. I don't really know the mechansim myself but it works with electricity, which on the other hand is produced through magic and channeled to all the households in Magnolia. That is also the reason, why I don't need fire for the cooker. It heats up through electricity."

„Electricity...?", Merrill asked.

„Yes. It is, uh, lightning, but controled." And that was the best explanation Lucy could actually give. With widened eyes her guests let their gazes skirt upon the strange devices they obvously have never seen.

„So that means, that everyone uses magic!", Merrill noted in fascination.

„Somebody has to tell the chantry how magic should actually serve man.", Hawke comented in a slightly sharp, but doubtlessly sracastic tone, while Fenris made a disgusted snort.

Lucy took a small knife from her kitchen counter and began to cut the vegetables. She gave her guests each another knife before she started and together they cut the tomatoes, carrots, the cuke and the sweet peppers to small pieces.

„So...", Lucy broke the silence. „Varric-san and Aveline-san already told me about this chantry. And about the mages in your world...", the blonde mage paused in her words. „Yes...?", Hawke only managed to say.

„Is it true that...that they take them from their families and lock them up in isolated towers?", Lucy asked.

„Yes, it is called the Circle of Magi.", Hawke responded.

„So have you been taken there as well?", Lucy proceeded.

„No, my father always protected me and my sister from ending up in one of those."

„But Aveline-san and Varric-san told us that mages who live outside a circle are considered apostates and are killed by the forces of the chantry. I think they called them templars...", Lucy said.

„That is also true. But the chantry never managed to truly have all the mages under its control. There are enough mages who aren't even recognized as such. That is also how we lived. We never exposed or talent to outsiders.", Hawke explained.

„Given these circumstances then yor father must be a very loving and brave man.", Lucy acknowledged.

„Yes, that...he was.", Hawke said silently and kept cutting a carrot, fighting desperatly against the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes every second.

„Oh..I am...sorry.", Lucy said.

„It's okay. It is already a decade since he passed.", Hawke assured.

„But still...I know how it is to lose a parent after all. My mother died when I was stil a child and I think I never really have gotten over her death. And my father has recently passed away, too...", Lucy replied.

„I am sorry for your loss.", Hawke said in deep, warm compassion. „I guess one will never truly accept the death of a loved one. And I think that is okay. I only have good memories of him after all.", she added.

„I imagine he put up a tough fight with the templars to protect you.", Lucy then commented.

„If you count avoiding templars to recognize you as a mage in the first place as fight, then yes, he never made it easy for them.", Hawke answered.

„The tower must've been too scary, huh?", Lucy asked.

„My father knew the tower. He spent half of his own life there. When he met my mother he broke out and eventually started a family. He just didn't want us to experience the same emptiness he had in the circle. And also..."

Hawke paused in her words and movements.

„If the templars caught him, they would've executed him without hestitation. A runnaway apostate does better not letting them know who they are. So he acted like an ordinary farmer, we did the same and in secret he would take me and my sister to train our talents and how to cover them."

Lucy stared at Hawke with an open mouth. She turned her face to her vegetables again.

„But why are mages treated this way?", Lucy questioned.

„The chantry has this saying: _Magic exists to serve man_ , not the other way around. In our history there was an empire consisting of the most powerful mages that time. These mages saw what power they held and soon used it to grow an empire. The magic they used is now forbidden by chantry law: Blood Magic."

„What is Blood Magic?", Lucy asked honestly.

Hawke could feel Fenris' body tensing up by hearing Lucy's question. She forced herself to keep her remark to herself and went on:

„Blood Magic is basically the ability of a mage to draw power from blood. It always has been used to summone demons and control other people so far. It caused a lot of trouble. Soon the empire grew with the help of this evil. But one day a woman stood against them. Her name was Andraste and the chantry worships her as the maker's prophet and bride."

„The Maker? Is that what you call God?", Lucy asked.

The older mage looked up to her blonde friend. She found the term 'God' not really creative but on the other hand 'Maker' wasn't really innovative either.

„I don't know if we worship the same god, but it is not important. Andraste managed to rally the people of Thedas against the Tevinter Imperium. Even the elves, who were enslaved by the mages, fought with her and for their freedom."

„They still are enslaved.", Fenris comented and Hawke could see that his movment quickened with fury, as he proceeded to cut a very unlucky cuke.

„Is that why...the chantry...locks mages away?", Lucy asked.

„Yes. After Andraste died the chantry was founded. First they simply forbade the usage of magic, but this didn't work, so the Circles of Magi were created."

„But to condemn so many for the deeds of others who have long died, for simply being what they are...", the blonde mage sighed.

„It isn't only the Tevinter Imperium. They also claim that mages are more vulnurable to demonic posession. If this happens a mage becomes an abomination and loses their mind. As such a mage becomes a monster and kills and destroys everything in their way.", Hawke added.

Abruptly Lucy stopped cutting her carrots and looked to Hawke with an expression of horror on her face. Her wide, brown eyes stared at the black haired woman next to her.

„Is this true?", she asked insecure.

„It happened every now and then.", Hawke answered. Shortly Hawke gazed at the ground. She wasn't sure if it was smart to tell Lucy all these things. Afraid that she may had scared the other mage off she tried to revive their conversation.

„Doesn't this happen here? I mean...the abominations...?", Hawke stuttered. Seconds later she scolded herself for this obviously silly question. This was probably not a good way to get someone to talk carelessly, especially not after you had revealed that you may lose control to a demon and kill them.

Lucy shook her head:

„No, I never heard of such things."

Suddenly something slammed on the kitchen counter, quickly followed by an angry snort.

„The cuke is cut and clean. I am waiting in the living room. Excuse me.", Fenris growled while he left the kitchen. Hawke knew that these kind of topics were a No-Go for Fenris. It was a miracle that he stayed for so long.

„Please forgive him. Fenris had some bad hisory with magic.", Hawke remarked.

„Does it have something to do with the slavery?", Lucy asked.

„How did you figure that out?", Hawke wondred loudly.

Lucy shrugged.

„Just a guess. Besides, his reaction was obviously the one of somebody who was hurt in the past very badly."

„So there are really no abominations here?", Hawke returned to their original topic.

„Abomination?", Lucy asked surprised.

„That's how we call mages who became possessed by demons. Usually they also look horrifying afterwards.", Hawke explained quickly.

„No. I never heard of such incidents in Magnolia or any other city on the continent. Of course there are mages, who become dangarous, but that is because they chose to be evil. Not because they are posessed by a demon. Well, there was once this mage we thought was possessed by a demon but it turned out that he was mindcontrolled by another mage.", Lucy finished.

„So there is Blood Magice here.", Merrill concluded who was still cutting her sweet peppers into stripes.

„No, how does Blood even work magic? It was simply Mind Controling Magic. There was no blood involved.", Lucy insisted.

Hawke was not sure if she was relieved, impressed or frightened that mages of this world appearantly had the power to control people without Blood Magic. This technique was one of the major reasons why the dark art was feared by so many.

„Oh it's simple", the dark haired Champion suddenly heard Merrill say. _Maker, no_ , Hawke thought to herself and as soon as she finished her thought Merrill proceeded:

„You cut yourself somewhere and drain magical energy from your blood. This way, your spells are stronger and-"

„Merrill!", Hawke scolded tha Dalish elf.

„Oh, oops, sorry. Forget I said anything.", the former first to her clan keeper quickly silenced herself.

Meanwhile Lucy gazed at Merrill with a look that indicated she already understood that Merrill was able to work Blood Magic. Of course she has. Merrill blabbered too much already. But to Hawke's surprise Lucy remained silent about it. Instead she pulled out a big, round plate and told them to arrange the vegetables on it. While they did as comanded Lucy went again to the strange white capboard and pulled out a tiny bowl, filled with a white cream as well some cheese. The blonde girl placed the tiny bowl in the middle of the vegtable plate. As Hawke asked she told her that the cream was a „dip" for the vegtables. Apperantly it was custom for peple here to dip vegtable pieces into that sauce which Lucy called sour cream. On another table the blonde mage arranged the cheese and some bread she just picked out from somewhere.

„All right, guys.", she then said enthusiastically and grabbed the cheese and bread plate. „Let's have some snacks." The younger mage marched towards the living room and stopped abruptly. The next thing Hawke noticed is that Lucy gave a loud and horrible shriek from her throat and the plate threatened to slide from her hand. Luckily, Merrill was at her side at the correct time and took the plate from the blonde's hand before it could go to waste.

Hawke who was holding the bigger plate with the vegtables moved closer to Lucy. She gazed over her golden head to see what made the young woman in front of her scream and enter a stasis, for she did not move one bit.

It didn't take long to identify the source of Lucy's shock.

In the middle of the room the Champion of Kirkwall saw how the Pirate Queen hold laced clothes up high and which frankly didn't look like they wood cover really much if anbody wore them. Concluding from the form of the clothes, they looked like underwear. Very fancy underwear indeed. Some of it looked like it was especially made to impress a sexual partner.

A sneaky grin had crept over Isabelas face as she looked to the paralyzed girl in the kitchen entrance.

„Wow, Lucy. I didn't consider you to be so...cocky", the pirate purred. At the end of the sentence Hawke knew that Isabela was going to say something way dirtier actually, but somehow managed to hold herself back for some reason.

„It appears that Lucy has some dark secrets indeed...", Erza muttered with a reddened face.

„I bet...", Isabela replied then turned back to Lucy.

„So tell us, who is the lucky man who gets to admire you in these...clothes?", Isabela asked evily. Clearly she enjoyed teasing others.

„Huh, but Lucy. There ain't other guys that come by beside of me.", Natsu suddenly spoke up and Hawke could see Lucys face turning into darker and darker shades of red in a very short time.

Isabela's eyes widened at the dragon slayer's sudden outbreak.

„Oh!", she squeaked before her face turned into grimace of joy and evilness once again.

„So Natsu is your dirty litte secret?", Isabela teased.

„Lucy, I hadn't known...", Erza muttered again.

„What secret, I wanna know, too!", Natsu shouted and stood up but was pulled back by Anders.

„Are you pretending, or are you really that stupid?", the healer asked in a whisper.

„I think he is that stupid...", Louis comented from Anders head.

„Aye...", Happy sighed then.

„What is it?", Natsu asked honestly furious.

Anders and Louis exhaled heavily at that and Happy turned to his owner with a slow movement.

„Just shut up, Natsu...", the blue cat said.

In the meantime, Hawke had placed the plate in her hands on the table which stood in the living room. She angrily marched towards Isabela and violently teared the underwear from her hands. Before the pirate could even protest she felt Hawkes enraged slap in her confused face.

It took her time before she figured out what just happend and then went wild.

„Hey, who the hell do you think you are?!", Isabela shouted at Hawke.

„Shut up, Isabela. You are grown ass woman. What the hell were you thinking when you just went and violated Lucys privacy?!", Hawke shouted back. Isabela was instantly silenced by the sudden outbreak of the apostate. She wasn't used to Hawke getting this angry after all.

„And Aveline!", she turned to the red haired warrior. „Why in the Maker's name, didn't you stop her?"

Said woman had turned her face away. A soft blush slowly spread on her pale face. „I tried, Hawke but she wouldn't listen. And franky, I had enough of babysitting her.", Aveline justified her inaction.

„Well, I never asked you to be my mother...", Isabela growled from the side. Aveline was about to reply with a sharp comment as Hawke agressivly demanded their silence.

„Quiet! Both of you!", she shouted.

Her next victim was Varric. The dwarf was writing something down in a small book when she turned to face him.

„And you Varric? What is your excuse for watching Isabela grab stranger's underwear and doing nothing about it?"

„Had to write that shit down, Hawke...", he said absently.

„Maker preserve me...", she sighed heavily.

„What...?", he shrugged, still writing. „Good jokes are hard to come up with. Better catch them from real life.", he explained as if it would clear out anything.

The Champion of Kirkwall then marched to the apostate healer. She didn't say anything this time, she just gave him an all anhialating gaze which damanded explanations followed by apologies.

„Don't look at me like that, I was busy with Natsu. Didn't even notice what that pirate whench was up to. Why don't you ask your boyfriend?", the runnaway apostate replied. But Hawke didn't take his advice. She was not going to talk to Fenris, he shut himself up from their company, eversince he massacred the cuke.

„I still didn't get an answer...", she heard Isabela say once again. At that moment Lucy seemed to gain control over her body again. Still with a deep tomato red face she stomped right into Isabela's direction and halted right in front of her. She took the underwear from Hawke's hand. With a shaky voice she began to speak:

„It's not like that..."

Before the mage could end her sentence a golden light eminating from her leather belt bathed the room in its grace. Only slowly the bright radiation crawled back to it's source. As it vanished it exposed a young man. He had wild hair, of which parts were formed into...cat ears?

It's colour was a similiar red to Aveline's hair. His face was young, with soft features and a wide smile on it. On his nose a pair of blue glasses shining in the sunlight, which came from the windows. The man wore a black suite, underneath it a white shirt, tied strangley with an even stranger red scarf at the neck.

„Let me explain...", his voice was deep in its resonance, yet soft and melodic. Who was that handsome young man and more importantly, where in Andraste's name did he come from?

„Who summoned you, actually?!", Lucy screamed in shock and anger.

„Ah, Lucy-chan. I overheard your conversation and I thought it would be a great time to expose our romantic involvement to the world."

„What? What the hell are you talking about? We have no 'romantic involvement' of any sort!"

Lucy's scared expression from earlier had switched into an angry and annoyed one. Appearantly she knew this intruder, but did not seem to bother about how he got into the apartement in the first place.

„Lucy-chan, you wound my heart...", the man sounded playfully hurt and heartbroken.

„You don't say...", Lucy replied at that.

„Well,fine. There are still plenty of beautiful women here.", the red haired man said in a frightengly enthusiastic voice as he turned to Hawke. With an oddly charming smile on his face he aproached the apostate. When he stopped in front of her he took both of her hands in his until he held them right between their chests.

„And may I know who this charming creature is?", he purred to Hawke. She couldn't help but blush a little.

„Hey!"

A low growl came from somewhere and without looking she knew it was Fenris. His voice,especially, when enraged was unique. She saw the suited man turn his head to the side.

„Get your filthy hands off of my...Hawke!"

The threat in his voice did not have the impact of agression he intended.

„Are you her boyfriend?", the man in front of her asked without hestitation.

„And if so?", the elf spat.

Even though Hawke knew that Fenris would never expose his feelings to others, and his feelings for her were no exception, she still felt hurt by this kind of response. Unreasonably she had hoped he would confirm that he was her boyfriend, especially after what they had. But appearantly he didn't feel that way.

After a moment the red haired man lowered his face slightly and closed his eyes.

„I see.", he said as if he discoverd a dirty secret. „I apologize for my behavior. No offense meant here."

„You better haven't!", Fenris growled once again.

The man then let go of Hawkes hands. Then Lucy raised her voice.

„That's enough, I suggest you better..."

Once again the blonde woman was interupted in her speech, when Natsu came storming to the suited man.

„Loki! Let's fi-AAAH!"

„Regulus Impact!"

Before Natsu could do anything he was hit by the man's golden glowing fist with whom he wanted to start a fight. He flew across the room and landed hardly on Anders who unseccessfully tried to dodge him.

„I'm sorry what did you want to say?", he then asked Lucy as if nothing had happened.

Clearly the blonde mage lost all patience by now.

„GO HOME!"

Lucy took one of the golden keys she had on her belt. She waved it in a vertical line in front of the red haired man.

„Gate of the Lion: Forced shut!"

With her movement a rift opened in front of the stranger. The next moment it closed in a quick flash of light and took the young man with it.

Everyone, except for Natsu and Erza, in the room stared at Lucy. Hawke's eyefocus was mainly on the keys. The moment she had spotted them she had known they were no ordinary keys. Now Lucy demonstrated it. As The Champion of Kirkwall tried to piece together what she just saw, she came to only one explanation. But given the cirumtsances in which magic was viewed in Thedas she desparatly fought to brush it aside and come up with another explanation.

Lucy who appearantly noticed the looks of her new friends began to move and shift nervously.

„What is wrong?", she whispered insecure.

„What was that?", Hawke asked.

„You mean, Loki?"

„It looked like you sent him back, to where he came."

„So...?"

„How? To where and what is he to you?", Hawke found herself asking anxiously.

„Never seen a spirit before?", Natsu said loudly.

„What?", Anders exclaimed in shock.

„Is that true?", Hawke asked.

„Y-yes. He is a spirit.", the blonde girl muttered.

„So you are a Blood Mage after all!", came Fenris immediate, enraged comment.

„Princess, why?", Varric said in an accusing and dissapointed tone.

„No. I am no Blood Mage. It works differently.", Lucy defended herself.

„Then explain yourself.", Hawke demanded. A slight ring of fear in her tone. It was diffcult enough to deal with Merrills frequent swings to Blood Magic. But its performance in such a manner was too much for Hawke to handle.

Lucy exhaled while she went across the room to sit on one of the chairs at the table. The thedosians looked expectantly at her.

„He is a Celestial Spirit.", she began.

„A what?", Anders blurted out.

„You never heard of them, Anders?", Hawke asked the healer.

„At least I never encountered one.", he replied.

„You gotta know...", was Fenris dry comment and Anders rolled his eyes in annoyance.

„What about you Merrill?", Hawke now turned to her other expert on the Fade. The elven mage shook her head slowly as a response.

Lucy then took one of the golden keys again and held it up for everyone to see.

„This is the key to his gate. We have a contract. Whenever I need him in a fight I can call upon him with this key. It opens the gate to his realm and he'll appear. But I can also sent him back, when I force his gate shut and thus force hm to go back.", Lucy explained calmly.

It still did not make any sense to Hawke, at least not without the involvement of Blood Magic. She kept staring at the blonde mage. Assuming from what she just told them, it meant that the girl had a strong connection to the Fade either way, if she was able to summone and send back spirits as she pleased. It meant that she had an enormous magical potential. If she exploited it she could become one of the most powerful and dangerous mages who ever lived. Furthermore it would mean to the chantry that she was an acute danger to the people and that it remains only a matter of time until a demon possesses her and she'd turn into an abomination. In Tevinter the magisters would fear, envy and hate her all at once. They either would let a Crow of Antiva assassinate her or she would be the Archon.

„Princess, if our templars cought you, they would behead you, impale your remains on a pike and burn it in public.", Varric spoke Hawke's thoughts.

„Or worse, make you tranquil.", Anders added.

„Tranquil?"

„Severe your connection to the fade.", Anders explained but earned only questioning looks from the magnolians.

„That's where we draw our magical energy, but that's not the point. Point is you become an obidient shadow of your former self. No feelings, no dreams and no magic."

„That is...", Erza didn't even find the words to describe what Anders just revealed.

„Questinable, we know. But that is not our topic right now.", Hawke said.

„More importantly, what in the Maker's name is a _Celestial Spirit_?", the Champion proceeded.

Lucy reached for the rest of the key hanging at her belt. The thedosians closed in on Lucy in order to see the keys better.

„They are called Celestial Spirits because they represent the zodiac star signs you can see in the night sky.", Lucy began.

„There are about 12 zodiac signs in total. Every sign has a spirit and a gate with its fitting key. Those are the golden keys. They may look like animals, humans or a mix of both and are able to fight for their mage in a battle. I currently hold ten of them." The blonde woman spread the ten golden keys on the table in front of her, one after another she named them.

„This is the key for Aquarius, The Water Bearer, this is Cancer, The Crab, and this Taurus, The Bull. Those were my first keys. My mother passed them on to me when she was dying."

„You have a tradition of magic in your family.", Anders remarked.

„A very horrible one", Fenris mumbled bitterly to himself.

Lucy took the next key.

„This is Virgo, The Maiden. I obtained her key during a mission when I was still new to Fairy Tail. She originally belonged to a millionair who had a book in his posession our employer wanted to have, but when he turned out to be a criminal and was detained by the forces of the Magic Council the key was given to me."

„It was a trophy?", Isabela asked.

„Not exactly. I forgot to mention that the bond between a Mage and a Celestial Spirit lasts normally a lifetime but it can be severed earlier when the mage is detained. They don't like working with criminals I suppose.", Lucy explained further.

„Oh yeah. Still remember that mission. That man was a nasty one.", Natsu said in a disgusted tone.

Then Lucy grabbed the key she used to send the man back who appeared out of the blue earlier.

„And you already met Leo, The Lion. His story is a very special one: Would you belive me if I told you that he posed as a guild member when I first came to Fairy Tail?"

„Hold one a second. You are telling me the spirit pretended to be a human and no one noticed?", Varric exclaimed.

„Pretty much. He called himself Loki at the time and was a real womanizer.", Lucy laughed.

Merrill and Hawke gazed at eachother, not quite believing what they just heared.

„But sprirts are different from humans, they don't have a real identity. They just persue their virtue. And they definitly have no sexual desires", Anders let out what he knew about spirits, about Justice more precisly.

„Is that so? Loki on his part was very human. He was our friend and acted as nothing else. But one day I noticed that there was something wrong with him. During that chain of events he revealed his true nature and his reason for posing as a human mage. He was exiled from his world."

 _Does the Fade have leaders?_ , Hawke wondered. She has known it as a place that shifts and changes all the time. Rules they were used to simply didn't aply there. With interested looks they procceeded to follow this special story.

„Before we set up our contract he served a mage from another guild. She wasn't so nice and abused her spirits regularly. One day he stood against her. He just appeared and refused to go back. You must know, keeping a spirit in this world consumes a lot of magical energy. If too much energy is consumed the mage suffers from magic insufficience and could eventually die. So Loki forced her to release his fellow spirit, who was the actual victim. She refused and died from the loss of magic."

Dying from magic loss? Hawke never heared about a conditon like this. She often exhausted her Mana herself but never fell dead from it. But in this world magic seemed to be the life essence of the mages. She wondered if they would just die, if templars tried to make them tranquil and was immediatly ashamed for this thought. Of course she didn't want to try it on them and see the results but it would give magic a whole different meaning than the one she was taught.

„The Celestial Spirit King decided that he was guilty and Loki began his struggle for survival for it also costs a spirit a lot of energy to remain here of there own. But eventually they just disappear and that was also what threatened to happen to Loki."

„Spirits have a king? Please go on, Princess, this shit is better than anything I have come up with.", Varric commented

„I couldn't let that happen. Loki did nothing wrong. He only helped his friend escape from a mistress who didn't value her spririts. With a lot of crying and shouting I convinced the king to let Loki return home and serve as a Celestial Spirit. For that Loki and his King entrusted the key to me."

„When I spoke to spirits they called me evil not a hero.", Merrill said.

„That's because you were talking to demons."; Anders remarked, then looked at Lucy like he wanted to tell her something.

„But I think I didn't quite catch why he was banished. Could you explain that again?"

„Lke I told you, his former mistress died. He didn't kill her directly, of course, but what he did was defying her orders, which resulted in her death. However by contract and the rule of their king a Celestial Spirit is absolutly forbidden from inobedience against their mage. What Loki did was considered treason and the worst crime a Celestial Spirit can comit."

Anders hazel eyes stared at Lucy in complete loss. His mouth was lightly open and it was clear that the healer was figuring out, what the other mage just told him.

Not noticing the Warden's reaction, Lucy returned to her keys.

„This one is the key for Aries, The Ram. She was the spirit Loki tried to save. The key was given to a dark mage named Angel."

„I guess Angel wasn't really that much of an angel, right?", Hawke joked. Lucy nodded.

„She fought dirty. She knew about Loki's and Aries's involvement and let them fight eachother, as she summoned Aries after I summoned Loki. She enjoyed watching me suffer. And I did. Loki didn't strive so much only to fight the one he tried to protect. But luckily I won the battle and like Virgo, I recieved Aries's key after Angel was detained, along with those two, Gemini and Scorpio. Aquarius and Scorpio are a couple, by the way."

In utter fascination Hawke and her friends listened to the various stories of all the different keys. Lucy spoke of them as friends, not as tools and they all seemed rather human than the spirits the black haired apostate has seen herself so far. She briefly reviewed the encounter with Loki from a few moments ago. If Bethany and her father were still alive they would never have believed that a spirit in fact flirted with her, and less that spirits could be romantically involved with eachother.

Still deep in her memories Hawke only heard distantly how Lucy told them something of Spirit called Sagittarius.

Only roughly, the infromation that The Archer's key was a reward for a mission which involved lifting a curse from the inhabitants of an island, scratched her own thoughts.

The Champion began to recieve a completly different view of her own ablities.

When her father had taught her and her sister how to control ther powers he had always made clear that magic had been a useful weapon to him, but only in emergencies. If the use of it could be avoided he had always relied on his sword, which later had been given to Carver after he had died, and close hand to hand combat. In all of his lessons Hawke had always sensed the shame of his ablities. The impression that the magic they possessed was rather a curse which needed to be treated with extreme caution, not a gift. And to a certain extent it had also become her doctrine.

But listening to Lucy talking about all the sprirts she could summone - an art considered frobidden in Thedas and extremely dangerous, even her father only had lectured her about spirits so she would not be tempted and could defend herself – began to change this fact slowly but steadily. Which was a curse that required caution was now transforming into a beautiful gift. Spirits were not potential demons anymore, but people with feelings and personalities, who could be companions and strong allies in battle.

„And last but not least, Capricorn, The Goat."

Hawke had not realized how deep she had drifted into thouht until Lucy started to talk again.

„A goat? Perhaps you can ask that one for help with Donnic, big girl.", Isabela chuckeled mockingly.

„Shut up, whore!", Aveline snapped back, but couldn't hide the slight amusement mixed with embarssment in her tone and on her face.

„What?", Erza asked, who didn't know the context of Isabela's little insider.

„Nevermind.", the pirate waved the question away while blinking an eye at Aveline.

„As I understand in your world people are afraid of mages possessed by spirits. Well, in Capricorn's case, the spirit was possessed by a mage.", Lucy lead the focus to herself again.

„Excuse me?", Fenris said with a scowl that expressed both anger and curiousity.

Lucy chuckeled silently at that and went on.

„Capricorn's key also had belonged to my mother, before he was passed one to another mage. The mage he had a contract with used a spell to possess him, in order to gain his abilities as a Celestial Spirit. He took on his form and joined a dark guild. The one we fought during the S-Class-Mage-Trial."

The thedosians have stared so much up until now, they feared their eyes would soon fall off from their heads. Truly, this world never seemed to cease to amaze them.

At the sudden silence the Celestial Spirit Mage coughed a little and returned to her storytelling.

„With Loki's help I freed Capricorn from the mage's spell. As a sign of gratitude I recieved his key."

After Lucy had ended Hawke and her companions thought the exact same thing:

What other terryfying wonders were the mages of this world capable of? And they all knew they would get an answer to this question too soon, when The Grand Magic Games would begin.


	6. Memories and Trains

**Chapter 6: Memories and Trains**

 _Welcome back to the sixth chapter of 'Companions' that I finally managed to finish and publish. I deeply apologize for the long waiting, but there was plenty to do. Exams to pass, papers to write and I also work on another fanfiction as well. Feel free to check it out if you happen to be an ATLA/LOK and Mass Effect fan. It's called 'Just in Time'._

 _Also I tried to take more time for my drawings since I didn't do anything of that in a long time and I also visited a few Anime/Manga conventions in spring. And I must say: Children really are the best sometimes._

 _So we sat in the train on our way home and my friend had purchased an action figure of Gray there (it costed 140 Euros and the worth can increase over time as it becomes rare. A good money investment in my opinion). She held the packag on her lap and anyone could see it. At some point a group of children, between 8 and 10 years old got into the train and one of them kept pointing at the Gray action figure, asking all sorts of questions about him. After my friend tiredly explained everything she knew about Gray to the boy, he finally said._

„ _Alright! First I finish Indiana Jones. Then I'll watch the naked!" and pointed at the Gray figure. I barely was able to stop myself from laughing. He had no idea how right he was to call him 'the naked'._

* * *

Fenris woke up to the loud sounds of an argument somewhere near him.

„Anders! Get out of the bathroom! Now!", a very high pitched voice shouted.

„Just a few minutes. I'm almost done!", a deeper voice shouted back which Fenris unmistakingly recognized as Anders's.

„You've been in there for half an hour already. Leave some time for the rest of us.", the other voice shouted and the elf finally identified it as Louis's while he groaned deeply as he sat up in his bed.

„Good morning, Broody.", a rusty voice next to him said. Fenris turned around and looked into Varric's smirking face. The merchant was sitting crosslegged on his bed, which was already neatly made, and wrote something into a small note book.

„What's that rockus?", the elf immediatly prompted.

„Yeah, I slept fine. Thanks for asking.", the dwarf replied sarcastically.

„You're so...aargh!", the flying cat interrupted the encounter and floated through the room. With a hanging head it decided to settle on Varric's bed. Fenris scanned the cat shortly. Its head was a bit too big for the rest of the tiny body, according to his taste but who was asking him about his opinion?

„So...", the elf snorted. „...is there a reason why you shouted me out of sleep with that squeaky voice of yours?"

If Fenris remembered anything before Danarius branded the lyrium into him than it was this: he was not a morning person and never had been. He hated waking up early and more so if it happened through loud, annoying sounds.

The little white and brown cat looked at him now.

„Because Anders is taking away all the time for the bathroom.", Louis replied with a hint of annoyance in his tone.

Fenris shrugged sighing: „What do you expect? That abomination needs extra time to hide his true self."

Sharp cat eyes scanned him up and down.

„Okay. Maybe you are even weirder than him."

They were almost a week in this world and Fenris still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that he had an actual conversation with a cat. More so since the cats used some kind of magic to fly.

 _Even the cats here are mages_ , he thought and wondered quietly if they weren't just demons in disguise.

Suddenly the door of the only bathroom flung open and a cleanly combed and shaved Anders stepped out.

„Louis. It simply takes time for a stunning man like me to get ready." Fenris felt the urge to vomit while Anders displayed an extra portion of his disgusting self love.

„And Fenris, just because you are not manly enough to grow a beard, which needs extra care, I might add, does not give you permission to spread lies about me to my cat.", the blond man proceeded and demonstratively pulled away the towel around his waist.

Almost simultaniously Fenris raised his hand to his eyes, grunting deeply in anger.

„You son of a...", the elf muttered and made his way to the now free bathroom to escape the sight which was offering itself to him. He ignored the loud protest of the cat who claimed to be before him in the line and heard a sharp coment from Varric before he closed the door.

„Blondie, please. Unless you've got chest hair like mine you are not impressing anyone with those tiny jewels of yours."

To that Fenris actually chuckeled. His ability to shut Anders up immediatly was one of the reasons why he adored the dwarf.

* * *

Down at the guild the day was already busy. There was a simple breakfast for everyone, but no one went to missions. Instead the mages were occupied with cleaning the guild. Plates and glasses and mugs and goblets needed to be washed and dried. The floor needed to be cleaned, dust needed to be wiped away from the windows and capboards and the backyard needed to be cleaned as well.

Everything and everyone was moving and Fenris had a hard time with navigating through this mess. Between moving and talking people he spotted Hawke, who stood in a circle with Lucy, Mirajane, Erza, Aveline, Isabela and that brunette drunk friend of the latter. He walked over to the dark haired woman and put a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and locked her golden honey eys on his. Distantly he recognized that she was not wearing her usual black robe with bits and pieces of armour at the chest, the right arm and around the leggs and that fluffy fur at her neck. Instead she was dressed in a light grey robe, made of a fabric that seemed to be intended for warm spring days, while her staff was nowhere to be seen.

„Good morning, Fenris.", Hawke said.

„Good morning.", he managed, while he desperately tried to ignore that the robe accented her well defined body curves too nicely.

„Uh, care to tell me what's going on?", he ended his sentence bluntly.

„We are departing tomorrow for our training vacation, remember? We want to leave the guild in a more or less good shape before we go.", Mirajane answered. Hawke nodded in agreement.

„If everyone helps a little it will be done in no time."

So the jobs were divided. Hawke had gone off with Lucy to wash the dishes that had been left from yesterday. Aveline and Erza were sent to the attic to clean and Isabela and Cana went down to the cellar. Since they were the heaviest drinkers they were tasked with carrying all the empty bottles out from the cellar and bring them back to where the alcohol had been originally bought. Appearantly it was custom here that you got a small part of the money back, if the bottles were returned. And there were a lot of bottles.

„Fairy-nii-chan!" a small voice called from behind him and before he could turn to see for himself the little girl jumped on one of his leggs. Asuka looked up at him from those large brown eyes and smiled brightly. Fenris bowed down to her and placed a hand on the brown hat of the little mage.

„Hey there, little one.", he said, smiling almost reflexively.

„Let's clean the guild together!", she called and Fenris wanted to hold her in place. He couldn't imagine at the moment what a little girl like Asuka could possibly do. But he wasn't fast enough. Asuka ran to Mirajane who was coordinating this whole procedure as it seemed. The white haired woman then came to him.

„Asuka-chan told me you are going to clean together.", she said sweetly.

„Well...", Fenris rumbled and rubbed the back of his head. Mirajane suddenly leaned in closer and whispered this time.

„Asuka is still small for real work here but you can do something simple fo the start.", the waitress began.

„I thought that much.", the elf replied, carfully lowering his tone. At that Mirajane nodded and proceeded.

„You two can clean the tables. I'll give you a bucket of water and towels. You can ask Lucy and Amal-chan for some cleaner.", this time she was louder, letting Asuka purposfully hear every word.

Before Fenris realized it he was handed a bucket, a towel and was now standing with the little girl at one of the wooden tables. He looked down at the barrs and studied them briefly.

 _It will take more than just a drop of cleaner to make these look decent actually._ , he thought, as he saw the several cuts, missing pieces and dirt in some corners he possibly couldn't reach.

A light grunt brought him back to reality. He looked down to where the soft sound was coming and observed Asuka who was trying to reach the table, which was definitely to high for her. Without any warning he bowed down and lifted the girl firmly from the ground, as he positioned her over the table. Asuka squeaked in joy.

„Here you go, little one. I hold you and you make the guild beautiful again.", he said as gently as he could manage. Asuka immediatly began to wave her already wet towel over the table.

„You're not going to clean those with water only, do you?" Hawke's voice was as bright and colourful as ever. Fenris put Asuka back on the ground and ignored the protest of the little mage.

„I, uh, was going to ask for some."

„Cleaner? Mira-chan already told us and we are done with the dishes anyway.", Lucy cut him off swiftly and held up a bottle of the liquid. She poured a few drops into the water bucket and smiled at Asuka widely. „See? Now, when you clean the table they'll become shiny and smell like your favorite lemon ice cream." Asuka studied the older girl for a moment and did the same with the bucket. She sniffed it briefly and finally decided that Lucy was right, as she dipped her towel into the liquid once again. Fenris was about to lift her off again but Lucy was again quicker.

„I can take care of Asuka for you, if you like.", she offered kindly.  
„Uhm, thank you but I can manage...", again she cut him off but this time not with words but with a barley visible wink and tip of her golden head into Hawke's direction.

„I mean, that would be great. Thanks.", he muttered. She then took Asuka to another table. While the younger mage was carried away he could still here the soft protest of the girl.

„But I want to clean with Fairy-nii-chan!", she squealed.

„Later, Asuka-chan. Amal-nee and Fairy-nii have important things to talk about."

„What kind of things?"

„Boring grown-up stuff."

„Like Mama and Papa?"

„Yes, like your Mama and your Papa!" was the last thing that Fenris could make out and he flushed a bright red. Only then he was able to identify the wicked scheme of the blonde and it made him a bit angry. His relationship with Hawke was his own damned buisness. He didn't need a teenager to stuck her nose into it.

„We finally have a bit of quiet time to talk.", Hawke then said.

„So it would seem.", he replied, trying to make it sound as natural as possible.

„It's...it's probably stupid. I shouldn't..."

She muttered insecruly. Fenris suddenly began to pay more attention to the woman. Insecurity wasn't usually Hawke's way. She was nice, yes, but often in a cheerfull way and she actually always found the guts to make some witty, sarcastic comment, even if her life was at stake.

Hawke dipped a fresh towel into the lemon fragrented water and began to clean the table.

You know yesterday evening, when that spirit...", she trailed off again. She had difficulty to stay at the point.

„You mean when he asked, if you were my grilfriend?" Hawke twitched lightly under the comment and Fenris found himself feeling a troubling amount of pride when she blushed softly. Pride that he, Fenris, the runaway elven slave, actually managed to make an outstanding woman like Hawke, blush. He, who had been used by his former master as lttle less than a toy, made the Champion of Kirkwall blush! He quickly fought to surpress that side of his mind though. Hawke didn't deserve to be thought off in such a lowly way, like a trophy. If he let it happen than wouldn't he be just as terrible and selfish as Danarius? So he locked the thought away and tried to ignore the blush deliberatly. And to his great relief, Hawke finally found her voice to speak again.

„It came up during the conversation I had with Lucy earlier and it honestly made me think a little, about us.", she said, now with more confidence in her tone. „What are we, Fenris?", she finally asked. A fairly good question, indeed, he wanted to say. _What were they?_ He remembered the night he had spent with her. All the loving words, softly spoken to eachother, the scents and the touches and the noises. It had been heaven before hell had broken loose. First the flashbacks, preventing him from sleeping out the afterglow. He had left in a hurry, as if he had wanted to escape, leaving her confused and heartbroken behind. When he had arrived at his 'borrowed' villa he immeditaly had chided himself for it. What the hell he had been even thinking, he had wondered and how that had been anything but honorable from him. So he had paced the night through the large, empty building, until he had decided that there had been no way around apologizing to her and he had wanted to do it the next day. He really had wanted to, but then the Qunari had decided to go on a rampage that day. And that was pretty much about it. They hadn't talked about it since then and had only been reminded of it by awekward silent moments. But appearantly the apostate intended to change that now.

„Hawke, it's...I have been meaning to say this a long time.", he began reluctantly.

„Yes?", she now payed her full attention to him and even dropped the towel into the bucket beneath her.

Fenris exhaled heavily. There was no going back now. So he took all the bravery he could afford and stepped closer to her. Only a few centimeters seperated his face from hers now.

„First, I wanted to say I am sorry." the words sounded empty and blunt and didn't describe even remotely what he felt but he didn't know what else to say.

„Fenris, that night I thought...", she took the word now but Fenris almost reflexively silenced her by putting a finger on her lips. _Oh those, soft, sensual lips._ He quickly snapped himself out of the thought. Equally scared and disgusted by himself for thinking such thoughts right now, he quickly removed his hand from her face.

„Let me finish.", he managed as calmly as he could. „I don't want you to think that that night was just a one timer for me, Hawke. By the Maker, it wasn't."

„But?", of course she heared the pull back in the sentence.

„But it is too fast, Hawke."

„You already said that.", she replied grimly.

„I know. But let me explain. After we, uh, well, you know.", he restarted his explanation and rubbed the back of his neck nervously while he swallowed and felt the blood already traveling to his cheeks. In these kinds of situations he thanked the Maker that he was dark skinned. It meant he wouldn't become immediatly tomatoe red but if it kept going the blush would show eventually.

She nodded slowly before he proceeded.

„When I tried to sleep, I had flashbacks of my life, before I lost my memory, before the lyrium and, it's...it's too much, Hawke. I'd rather we go at it slowly."

„So it was uncomfortable.", she concluded. The sadness was evident in the slight shaking of her voice.

„Yes, I mean no, I, ugh. Look, what I'm trying to say here is, too much is at conflict for me now, Hawke and this whole mess we got ourselves into and I..." He sighed in frustration. „I need to figure this out, Hawke."

„Is it because I'm a mage?"

There was this word. It slapped him with a force he thought only Tevinter slavers had on display. He tried to balance around this accusation but it lingered somewhere in the back of his head. He tried to tell himself that it wasn't because of that, that Hawke was an ordinary woman and he is a messed up guy and that he needed to fix himself first before he actually considered to enter a serious relationship. But if he broke it down, it was really only this fact that she was a mage. Fenris despised mages. Hell, he ran away from one. And soon after he had thought he left Danarius behind, thought that he had escaped he had to run right into the next mage. But this mage was kind to him, offered him help and a purpose and in the end her heart. And he had opened up to that. But that aspect of her was still there. Hawke was a mage, an apostate one. In that way a personfication of what he hated most. A mage on the loose with no restrictions to hold her back. With her power what could possibly hold her back from unleashing chaos upon the world, from being like Danarius? But she wasn't. She didn't make a big deal of demonstrating her talents and when chaos broke out somewhere she wasn't the one causing it, she was the one being somehow caught in the middle of it and the one who ended up fixing it. Two, in his worldview, contradicting sides unified in one woman, who made him sleep horribly at night, because within his mind these very two sides fought bitterly over dominance. And as long as this battle went on, he couldn't be bound at her side and rest easily at the same time, not to mention make her happy in this miserable state.

 _Oh Maker damn it all!_

„Hawke, please. This is all very confusing to me and I need to figure out myself before I figure us out."

It didn't of course describe half of what he actually thought and felt but it was a good summery, in his opinion, which explained the problem without adressing the problem. He felt the increasing desire to pat his own shoulder for it.

Hawke squeezed the water out of the towel and into the bucket. She made brief eye contact and Fenris could see her golden eyes glisten.

 _Oh no, please don't cry._

„I understand." she finally said and carried the bucket to the next nearby table. Appearantly the conversation was over to her. Fenris should had been happy, that she released him so easily but for a reason he wasn't. Of course he was relieved that the actual issue was off the table but he didn't want the interaction to end, not on these bad terms anyway. So the elf quickly followed her. She already swiped the towel over the wood, when Fenris coverd her hand in his and with a swift movement removed the towel from her grip. He could feel her twitch lightly under his touch and the soft contact sent light pulsating impulses up his skin but he ignored it determinedly. „It's _my_ job, Hawke, so I do it.", he explained when she shot him a questioning look.

„So...", he then tried to ease the tension. „Where is Merrill?" Fenris didn't turn around fully he just looked at Hawke from the corner of his eye. She just stood ther stifly, as if not knowing what to do with herself. One of her eye brows shot up, when she heard the question.

„And since when are you interested in what Merrill is doing?", she asked sharply. The sarcastic undertone was unmistakenly there and Fenris relaxed internally. Hawke was back, the witty attitude returned to where it belonged. He didn't piss her off that much after all.

„Uhm, honest interest in the well being of the group dynamic?"

„And by 'group dynamic' you mean keeping our chat going by any means possible?" The words may had been harsh but from her tone Fenris could tell that she didn't mean it that way. She was making fun of him, sure. She enjoyed that quite a lot. But first, Hawke didn't mean to start a fight with it, and second, Fenris did not recieve a special treatment. She always planted a wicked comment whenever she saw the opportunity.

„Hey, you are the one who always says I should interact with other people more frequently.", he replied, trying to shade his voice with a hint of amusement.

„She is down in the library. Helping Levy with returning the books into the right order, clean them from dust, you know.", Hawke answered.

„And what about that abomination and Varric?", Fenris asked then.

„You are asking about Anders? You sure you're not running a fever? Or have you accidently drunk one of our lyrium potions?", she laughed.

„I'm doing just fine getting myself drunk on alcohol already, thanks.", he replied and couldn't quite surpress a laugh himself now.

Questioning his very existence in one moment, and embracing life whole heartedly in the other. That was how Hawke influenced him.

„Helping the boys cleaning up the backyard. Mostly moving away unnecessary rubble because – and I cite Elfman here – 'only real men should do the heavy lifting.", she answered his question now chuckling.

„I see.", Fenris commented plainly. He didn't know what to say other than that really. As she had already pointed out, he mostly wanted to keep the conversation going. Hawke however, didn't let it slide into silence either.

„After we finish here we can go join up with the others in the backyard. Elfman said there'll be a barbeque after the boys have finished their job there."

„A what?", the elf questioned the used unknown term.

„A barbeque he called it. I didn't know the word either until he explained it. Basically it means, there'll be a lot of grilled meat and plenty of beer for everyone.", Hawke explained.

„Ah, so it is a feast then. But why bother with cleaning and tidying everything up when we're going to mess it up again anyway?", Fenris asked dubiously. Okay, maybe the main hall, attic and library will stay safe after all, since this feast, or whatever it was, was going to take place on the outside anyway, but Hawke and Lucy could've saved themselves the dishes.

„As I too wondered about the sense of the work we are doing right now, his younger sister Lisanna said, that the dishes we are going to use will be paper dishes, so instead of washing them we'll just throw them away and the beer will be drunk directly from the bottles."

Paper dishes? Fenris had never heard of such fabrications before and was unsure how this _barbeqaue_ would proceed but he didn't question it for now.

„Strange customs.", so he only commented. Instead he grabbed a wet towel and returned to clean the tables once more.

„Has the spirit of duty suddenly returned upon you?", Hawke asked with a smile in her voice. He couldn't help but laugh slightly.

„Come on. The faster we get this over with, the sooner we'll feast from paper plates." Hawke now also took a towel again and still chuckling clearly amused, returned to wipe another table clean with the lemon fragranted substance.

* * *

Aveline wiped the abandoned spider web away from one narrow corner of the attic, before she turned around to Erza after she heared a loud rumble behind her. The scarlet haired warrior mage swore under her breath and rubbed the left side of her head.

„Need help?", the older woman asked.

„No, thanks.", Erza said while surpressing the pain slightly. „Who keeps a piece of massive wood at the edge of a capboard anyway?", she muttered then, rather to herself than for anyone else to hear. Aveline walked over to her. Several items had fallen down next to

Erza and among them that culprit of a piece of wood. It wasn't special, really, Aveline found as she took it and turned it around a few times in her palm. No carvings that indicated a specific use.

„I think the only thing that it could've been used for is nothing more than a door stopper.", Aveline gave her response.

„Well, I never saw anyone use it so it's going into the sack with the other things for the dump." So Aveline threw it into the navy blue sack in the middle of the room. So far the two women had brought most of the attic into perfect order, which mostly consisted of sorting out things to keep and things not to keep. The things of which Erza decided the guild wanted to keep were old items, no one ever used either, but which served as memory trinkets for certain guild members. Like a burned figure of a warrior that appearantly had belonged to Gray at some point of his childhood. According to Erza it was kept to remind the ice mage of the day he met Natsu. „Why does he keep it?", Aveline had asked. „They don't seem to get along all that well. And shouldn't he keep it at his own home?" At that Erza had laughed. „I'm sorry. Of course you can't know.", the mage had tempered her own laughing and while she sorted other things out she went on. „Natsu and Gray are really best friends. Within the guild they are our best tag team and together they make a devastating duo in a fight." The older woman had eyed her dubiously.

„Speaking of which, I mean fight, the only fight I've seen so far from them is their own infighting."

„They are literally ice and fire, Aveline. They often clash but that doesn't mean they hate eachother. Both, Gray and Natsu, love good fights and they love to show what they can do. Fighting eachother is for them more of a fun excersise than a dead serious battle. By challenging eachother they show their friendship. That's how they express their respect towards their skills and powers. That's how they help the other become stronger and improve. And as to why it is kept in the guild; they want to share that memory with the other guild members as well."

Though it was not Aveline's way to pay her respect with a duel she, as a full fledged warrior, still understood the dynamic behind it. Also in Thedas many people considered a challenge to a fight an honor, a way to tell someone they are a worthy oponent. So she had just nodded it off and returned her attention to the attic. The other things they had found there had been pictures, strange pictures in fact, to which Erza payed particular attention when picking them up. They were small, some of them framed, others were attached on book pages and some of them layed loose on a shelf or on the floor even. On many of them she had recognized the guild members, on others it took her a time of thinking until she figured they were the same people, only younger and others she had not recognized at all. But it is not like Aveline had never seen an accurate drawing or painting of a person before. In fact, she had had the pleasure of admiring the portarits of the Ferelden kings when she'd had served under King Cailan and the Viscount whenever she'd had walked to work in the Viscount's Keep. The thing that astonished her was that the pictures she helped re-arranging into order, looked way too realistic, more than the best portarits of the most famous and talented artists in Thedas, as if they were not drawn but a vivid moment captured onto a piece of paper. The details and the shading were perfect and the colouration even. They lacked the faint trails of a paintbrush inevitably left in the fresh oil-paint. What kind of artist was capable of such magnificent work? Though Aveline doubted that an artist was responsible for the perfect pictures of the guild members. First and foremost, they were simply too many of them and Aveline didn't believe that the guild actually spared the money for an artist of this quality to paint even half of what the warrioresses had found up there. They showed portraits and moments of a long time span and no one actually hired an artist to let him make a painting of everything they did in their lives, which lead her to her second conclusion; a lot of the pictures captured moments, moments in which the people absolutely had been not prepared to be immortalized on a painting. They were caught in situations where they hadn't expected to be captured, like a little Erza spilling milk all over the place, or Elfman being jumped at from behind by none other than Gray and Natsu, as he tried to keep his balance but clearly about to fall. The artist who wanted to draw this had either to be very fast or the people here were good models, but no one could hold onto a position like in the last one that long. And finally, the third thing that lead her to her conclusion, was the imperfection of the people. Oh sure, the pictures themselves were great, rich in detail and realistic. And that was the point, they showed the unfalsified reality. That crooked grin of Lucy on one of the more recent group pictures, the not so perfect hair of a half sleeping Mirajane or that horrible face expression of a shouting Erza. An artist however, never reproduced the reality. It was an interpretation, an interpretation influenced by your customer, but an interpretation of some sorts, nonetheless. The artists were not paid to show the not so pretty sides of their employers, they were hired to purge out any imperfection in the painting, to form an improved image to present to the world after them.

„Exploring the guild's memories?" Erza snapped her out of her thoughts. She winced slightly and put the picture she was holding onto one of the books which contained more.

„I was impressed by the quality of the...paintings? Your artists surely lay a lot of time for details into their work.", the guard captain began to ask her way to the truth carefully. Erza stared at Aveline for a few seconds and then began to laugh loudly again.

„What?"

„Oh, Aveline. Those aren't paintings. They're photographs."

„Excuse me?" Aveline scowled at the yet again unnown term. The grin vanished of Erza's face as she appearantly saw that the older warrior didn't find this amusing at all.

„Photographs. Photo in the short form. You know, you take them with a camera?", the scarlet haired mage tried to explain.

„And what is that now?"

„You don't have cameras in your world?"

„I wouldn't ask if we had."

„Okay, uhm, they are devices that work with light to produce a picture of a person or a group or a moment. Whatever you like actually. I don't know the mechanism myself but they are easy to handle and take a hell of a lot less time to be finished. Also less modelling for an artist."

Aveline had the feeling that her process of thinking had to make quite the noise as she tried to grasp what the other tried to make her understand. So her initial idea was not wrong. The pictures were indeed too perfect in their imperfection to be the manual work of an artist. But she still couldn't believe that it was possible and how it was possible. The guard captain felt the scowl deepen and Erza reacted to that.

„I think Mirajane has a camera. She takes most of the pictures. Maybe she can show it to you and we could take a picture at the barbeque or later."

Aveline wanted to nodd at the response. She would see what that device was after all, but the last word let her snap to attention again.

„At the what?"

„Barbeque. Grilling meat, drinking beer and all that stuff.", the younger replied. Finally Aveline nodded, putting the topic to the side for the time being. They continued to sort out more unused and unecessary things and Erza stopped occasionally to look at the pictures she arranged into the books, which she called albums. The people here had a habit of collecting the... _photos_ and keeping them in the _albums_. The young warrior mage chuckeled in amusment at a particular group of photos. Aveline stepped to her side and examined the small pictures. One of them showed the mages in front of a... _rainbow tree?_ The older woman pointed at it curiously. She had seen a lot of tress in her life, the forests of Ferelden had lots of the giant plants and not all of them were friendly. She had also seen cherry, apple, orange and peach trees in their full bloom and they didn't lack in any beauty. But the tree on the picture was different and more amazing than everything she had ever seen. With no doubt it was in full bloom. But the petals didn't have one or two colours, they eminated a wide spectrum of bright colours and since the photo was taken at night, it was evident that they glowed. In front of the massive tree stood the whole guild, all dressed in strange and colourful but not unappealing looking robes.

„That is the Rainbow Sakura Tree. It was taken during Fairy Tail's spring festival.", Erza answered the unspoken hovering question.

„Sakura?"

„Cherry Blossom. You have cherry trees in your world, don't you?"

„Oh, yes. Of course." _Sakura_. Aveline decided silently that she liked this word better. „But why is it glowing?", the older woman asked now. „It is a magical tree. Every year in the spring it releases its magic and blooms in the colours of the rainbow. But only once a year, during the night. Then it returns to an ordinary Cherry Blossom Tree. We celebrate our spring festival every year around it to witness that unique experience." Aveline nodded at that while she examined the scene further. She could make out every mage she had met in the guild so far. Some of them looked differently. Makao and Wakaba looked younger, Romeo was smaller and some of Levy's constant companions looked thinner. As her eyes wandered through their ranks she noticed that someone was missing.

„Where is Lucy?", she asked.

„Lucy was the one who anticipated the day more than anyone but sadly she fell ill that evening. She had to stay at home. But then, well, see for yourself.", Erza answered and pulled out another picture from behind the first one. It showed the Rainbow Tree planted into a pot, sailing down the canal of the city.

„What...?", she began but then Erza pulled out the next picture. Now the tree was floating in front of a very familiar house...Lucy's house? _Don't tell me..._

Erza pulled out the next photo and Aveline's suspiscion was confirmed. It showed the whole crowd standing beneath Lucy's home now, with Natsu sitting at the window of the blonde mage and she herself was looking out of that window as well, with a big smile on her slightly reddened face.

„He really tore out the whole tree and sailed it down the river for her to see."

„That's Natsu for you. He felt depressed and down the whole time, because Lucy couldn't be there, but then he decided that it is no reason for her not to see the tree bloom. Well, that was the result."

Aveline couldn't help but grin widely at the image. Other men came around with a bouquet of flowers. But Natsu? He tore a whole tree out for the girl he...loved? Was there actually more? So far, Natsu and Lucy hadn't shown the intimacy of a couple, but their dynamic and the affection for eachother was evident nontheless.

Perhaps it will develope to something more, eventually. She, of all people, didn't want to push. She knew exactly that it was sometimes difficult to find eachother in that way.

 _They will get their act together eventually_ , she thought and then said out loud.:

„Come on. Let's finish this and go down. I'm beginning to get hungry."

* * *

Between piles of books and dust Merrill desperately tried to figure out the order in wich the books were arranged. Levy had explained it to her but the system seemed so awefully and needlessly complicated. A letter for the general category, then a number for a group within a category and finally the books had had to be in alphabetical order. She grabbed a large thick book with a dusty and half torne off dark red envelope. Its title was barely readable. It was originally written with gold paper, carved into the envelope as letters, but time took its tribute, so what was left of the title were the traces of the letters and little scraps of the gold paper within the letter traces. The elven mage didn't try to sort in that one, instead she had the impulse to take it into a more lit corner, where she could make out the title at the front of it. She stood beneath a little window that revealed the most sun light in her opinion. Merrill weighed the obviously old book in her hand, trying to get a good angle at the barely visible letters that finally revealed themselves to her.

 _The World beyond – Basics of the Spirit World and the Art of Teleportation._

The already large eyes of the elf went even larger as she read the title in her mind. She flapped quickly through the pages to get a general overview. Her eyes picked out key words like 'the connection between the two worlds' and 'guide to a succssful teleportation' and decided that it sounded promising to her.

 _Maybe I'll find a way to get us all back home._ , she hoped silently. That might be her chance to fix the mess she had caused. If she hadn't been so hot headed about that gods' damned Eluvian nothing of this would had happned. A light sting tugg at the corner of her mind. The thought was degrading evrything good that had happened to them. It was actually not a so bad experience and the guild mages were all really nice people for shemlen. However being stuck in a world that was not theirs was still nerve wercking to say the least.

„Merrill-chan, you done there?", Levy asked from around the book shelf. Merrill winced and the antique book almost slipped from her hands.

„Uh, mostly. I need a bit help with a few books I wasn't sure about where to put them.", Merrill replied. The small blue haired girl appeard from around the corner. Immediatly the elven mage felt the urge to hide her finding from Levy. She quickly put it on a shelf next to her between a few other books, disguising it as already sorted in.

„Wich are those?", Levy asked as soon as she fully stood in front of the elf. Quickly Merrill pointed at a pile on a wooden stool. They were not many, between 6 and 9 maybe. Some of them, like the one Merrill hid, looked like they would fall apart momentarily as soon as somebody passed a whim of a touch upon them.

„Oh, that'll go quick.", the small human anounced and already started to arrange them into the right order between their book companions. Once again Levy showed Merrill how the systematic worked and within five minutes all of the books were neatly sorted in and the library looked like a completely other room than the one they had entered this morning. The blue haired mage already made her way out of the library as she muttered something about lunch under her breath. Indeed, also Merrill felt the increasing rumble of her stomach, but she didn't pay much attention to it. She waited until Levy left the room and her eye sight before she turned around to the shelf where she hid the ancient looking book. She pulled it out and walked with it out of the library, trying not to stand out as much as possible.

* * *

It was late noon when the guild ended their barbeque lunch down in the backyard of the headquarter. The grill still stood at the center, left to cool down after many kilos of meat had ben grilled and roasted. Crates with empty and a few still filled beer bottles stood around it. A few guild members stood in small groups sipping the remaining drops of their beers and chatting light heartedly but the most of them, including Hawke and her friends, were occupied with the sparring match Aveline and Erza had right now. A breez waved through the yard causing her black strains to fliy into her face. Hawke brushed the locks away to take a better look at the fight in front of her. Neither woman was wearing a heavy armour. They wore leather cuirasses in place of their metallic chest plates and they replaced their sharp steel swords with ones of wood in one hand, as well as wooden shields in the other. The wood of the swords repeatedly clashed as both women tried to get a strike on the other. Erza aproached Aveline fiercly. She drove her sword again and again into Aveline's defense, exploiting every possible weakness she could spot. She moved swiftly, hoping to tire and confuse the older woman, she mostly relied on speed. To some extent it worked, Aveline was pushed into a defensive strategy for the moment. However Aveline was a master in defense. She was able to deal damage to her enemies enormously but could on the other hand also take the beating for a very long time. Her defense was almost flawless. And it was no different with Erza. The scarlet haired mage's strikes were excellent and cunning, but every hit was countered by Aveline. Erza moved in close now and once again the swords clashed. Aveline drove the sword to the side, almost sliding it out of her hand. But Erza didn't let go. Instead she moved with the sword, turned in a graceful pirouette and attempted to flank Aveline. The gurad captain noticed the startegy of her openent and dove away, rolling to the side in she came up to parade a hard hit from Erza who quickly proceeded to hammer on her, now that she thought she had pushed her into a disadvantage. Once again the swords danced fiercly, eminating a dull pound whenever they touched.

„You're good!", Erza shouted between panting breaths.

„And for a change I have an oponent who poses a real threat!", Aveline answered. Hawke chuckled at that remark. Thinking back to a few hostile encounters, namely the qunari invasion, Aveline had always been fighting at the front, not stopped by absolutely anything. She had been regularly surrounded by enemies, drawing their attention while she endured their beating. And the poor bastards thought they could defeat her by sheer numbers. They had never known how much she could take, until they tired themselves out on her and the others finished them.

„Erza is a fine warrior for a mage.", Varric remarked.

„Of course. Her whole magic is based on weapons and swordsmanship after all.", Hawke replied.

„I think she would be better off with a great sword however. Probably how she fights normarly.", Fenris now rumbled.

„How so?", Hawke asked.

„She is laying all her strength into the sword but doesn't pay much attention to the shield. All the hits she took from Aveline she blocked with the sword, eventhough sometimes it would have been a better option to block with the shield.", the elf explained.

„Hm, and Aveline picked the weapons...", Hawke grinned.

„And Erza accepted for fairness' sake. Though Aveline hadn't known that when she picked the weapons, she certainly knows now. Probably why she grinns so widely.", Fenris said with an amused undertone.

„Knowing our guard captain, she will exploit that weakness mercylessly.", Varric now commented.

„Or maybe not?", Hawke said now, golden eyes fixed on the duel. Erza managed to hit the sword out of Aveline's hand. Now unarmed, Aveline just ducked to escape the quickly raining hits from Erza. Aveline lost her balance and fell to the ground. Hawke gasped at that and was about to jump to her warrior. But Aveline wouldn't be Aveline if she would give up just because she stumbled to the ground. Erza swiftly closed in on her, seeing her chance to end the battle in her favor. She swung her fake weapon for a final, hard hit. The sword fell heavily on Aveline. But instead of a clear win for Erza the guard captain rose her shield in defense, blocking the supposedly win hit of the scarlet haired mage. Aveline's hand was steady and she did not waver at the contact of the wood. Instead Erza was pushed back by the resulting force of the impact. It took her a moment to catch herself. Still slightly startled she straightned her back and readied herself for another attack. But these seconds were enough for Aveline to stand up and move back into the fight. Another swing of Erza's sword flew on Aveline's shield who now, wasn't just blocking anymore but was actively using the shield to push Erza away. Again the strength behind the encounter was unexpected for the mage and she stumbled backwards. However before she could collect herself this time, Aveline already moved in on her and gave her three hard hits with her wooden shield. Erza fell to the ground, and her sword and shield slid from her hands. Aveline took Erza's sword and placed it triumphantly at her throat.

Pure silence hovered above the audience. Hawke actually wanted to cheer for her friend but was stopped by the startled gazes and wide opened mouths of the Fairy Tail mages. Clearly they couldn't figure out what they just witnessed.

„This can't be...", she heard a voice mumble in numb astonishment.

„Did she just defeat Erza...?", another one said as if he were suffocating. Hawke locked her eyes on the warriors again and saw the widened eyes of Erza. Appearantly she couldn't quite process the expereince herself.

„You...defeated me...", she said softly and with exhaustion.

„So it would seem.", Aveline replied tonelessly.

„No one ever managed that.", Erza now said with a smile in her voice.

„A word of advice: that's a shield in your hand...", Aveline now replied smuggly and tilted her head to the shield lying next to Erza. „...use it!", she then ended her sentence. Erza smiled softly and added: „I'll remember that." Aveline then reached out a hand to help Erza stand up, which she gladly accepted. At the other side of the watching crowd Natsu and Gray seemed to lose all senses, glaring at Aveline with wide eyes and panicked features, standing so close to eachother that it looked like they wanted to dissapear into the other.

„THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!", they simultaniously shrieked and the rest agreed with them silently.

„Get your act together already, will you? It was only sparring!", Erza snapped at them as soon as she stood more or less solidly on her feet. Perhaps Aveline's shield bashes were a little to hard after all.

„Right, and she wasn't using her magic. I'd imagine this whole fight would've looked completly different if she would've gone all out on me. So relax." The two young men swallowed audibly as Aveline spoke to them and forced themselves to obey.

„Y-yes.", they said timidly and backed away a little. Hawke now aproached Aveline and slapped a hand on her shoulder appreciatively. „Well done. You did us proud.", she said half jokingly. The guard captain laughed at that. „Someone needs to defend Thedas' honor in here."

„Oho! That was impressive.", Louis said with his tiny voice and hovered at Anders' side to the group. „That's Aveline for you! Good fight.", the healer remarked and there was a pride in his voice he rarely held for anyone.

„Thank you, Aveline.", Varric then suddenly said. The warrior narrowed her eyes at him sceptically. „For what?", she asked.

„For this battle. That was the best fight scene I have ever written. It's totally going to be in my next book. You too, Iron Chest.", with the last sentence he turned to Erza while he was scribbling something in his small note book. „Did you adress _me_?", the scarlet haired mage asked. „Yes, that's your new name. Iron Chest."

„He's so going to die.", Natsu and Gray murmured, while Happy agreed with a sighed 'Aye' next to them. Erza on the other hand stared at him quizzically, then looked to Hawke with the same expression. „Varric has nicknames for almost everyone he knows.", she explained. Well, almost for anyone, except for her and Aveline. When they had asked him about the reason once, he had claimed that he simply couldn't find a suitable nicknames for neither of them.

Erza still looked at her at that point, then averted her eyes to the distance as if she thought about what she just heard and finally returned her focus to Varric and grinned a bit. „ _Iron Chest_. I like it, sounds strong, unyealding and absolutely unmovable by anything or anyone.", she assessed.

Gray's and Natsu's jaws hung wide open by that point and Lucy shrugged her shoulders and sighed.

„And as ungraspable as Erza's taste sometimes." A laugh went through the crowd at that point in wich even Fenris joined in. „Where is Merrill by the way?", Aveline suddenly noticed.

„Good question I didn't see her either. I thought she might be among the others here.", Hawke replied. But the elven mage didn't come out to congratulate her friend. „Last I remember she was with Levy.", Lucy said and and turned to the girl in the same heart beat. „Levy-chan, have you seen her?"

Levy who was standing with Gajeel shot them a startled look with a her sparkling big eyes. „I thought she already joined you. Didn't see her since we finished the library." „Perhaps she's still there?", Gajeel now suggested. „Maybe got lost in one of the books. She seemed like a crurious one to me, full of questions.", Pantherlily now added, while he hovered a little closer to the crowd. His deep, masculine voice still didn't fit with the tiny body of the black cat.

„I think the kitten went back to the dormitory.", Isabela now intervened into the conversation. She just finished a bottle of beer and exchanged the empty one with a full one from the crate. „Right.", Cana now agreed and nodded. She took a sip from her still filled bottle and swallowed it heartly. „We saw her when we came back from the drink store, after we returned the empty bottles from the cellar.", she added.

„But I told her about the barbeque. Why did she go there?", Levy wondered now loudly. „I don't know. The kitten almost ignored us and looked like she was in a hurry.", Isabela told them what she had seen.

„Then we'll go look for her there.", Erza decided and was about to storm off. She was stopped by Wendy however, who positioned herself in her way. „Wendy...", she said surprised. „Stop right there. Where do you think you are going?", Charle scolded her sharply. „I am sorry Erza-san. I don't want to be rude but you took a few hard hits from Aveline-san. I want to check on you, just to be safe.", the blue haired girl said politely. Aveline rubbed the back of her neck at that moment and muttered a barely audible 'sorry' under her breath. But Wendy's ears were unusually sharp and she turned her attention to the older warrior. „Aveline-san, you too. Hawke-san can go to check on Merrill-san."

So Hawke ended up walking up to Fairy Hills alone. Merrill was one of her people after all, so she was responsible. The apostate mage didn't need to go all the way up however. The wanted elf was rushing down from the dorm right about then, when Hawke was walking up.

„Merrill!", she exclaimed. The elf almost bumped into her, if she hadn't called out. „Oh, Hawke! What are you doing here?", Merrill said out of breath.

„I could ask you the same. You didn't come to lunch."

„Yes, I was doing things that...needed...doing.", she clumsily jumped around the question.

Hawke rubbed her eyes warily. If Merrill was avoiding a conversation on what she had done, it usually wasn't good and the Champion of Kirkwall didn't dare to think about what it could be this time.

„Merrill...", Hawke moaned exhausted.

„It's nothing bad! Really! I promise."

„Then why don't you just tell me?", Hawke struggeled now to keep herself collected. The last time Merrill planned something and didn't want to talk about it, her Keeper Marethari was killed and the other elves cast her out of the clan. They would had killed her, if it wasn't for Hawke, who had shielded her at that time.

„Because I still didn't figure it out myself. Please, until then you must trust me.", the elven mage pleaded. Hawke exhaled heavily.

„Oh great Maker in the heavens, I'm going to regret this!", she finally said. But it was clear that Merrill was not going to talk and she had no idea how to make her talk without hurting her in the process.

Merrill smiled warmly at the other mage. „I swear by the Creators, I will not dissapoint you. And the Dread Wolf may take me, if I do.", she said enthusiastically.

Hawke rose a hand in defense. „Merrill, no oaths please. I just hope this will not go too wrong.", she sighed and the elf nodded, before she lead her back to the backyard of the guild.

When they arrived, Merrill was greeted warmly by the others. They offered her the meat that was left from the barbeque and a bottle of beer, while they asked her all sorts of question about where she had been and why she didn't come. Merrill politely turned down the beer and took only a glass of water instead and gave the same answers to the questions she gave Hawke. When the mages finally accepted that they would not get any further infromation they stopped interrogating her. The attention of a few who were still curious and not easily turned down were forced to fix ther attention somewhere else, when the guild master called for it. The short old man stepped into the center of the yard and cleared his throat to get their full and undivided attention.

„I hope your bellies are full and your thirst is stilled, because I need your full concentration now.", he began. He looked around shortly and continued his speech.

„That's it, brats. Tomorrow we will depart for a time of training and preparation. And from then it will only be three months until the Games. I will be honest to you; I don't know what will await you or what challanges you will face. But one thing I know for certain: You are strong, you are talented and a fire burns in your hearts so bright and fierce that it will light the deepest darkness and will lead you even through the most twisted paths. So know, whatever happens, I trust you will pass through it sucessfully. And at the end you will have grown and you will be better and even stronger than before. Because we are Fairy Tail." The mages responded with loud cheers and claps to the speech. Words of reassurement and motivation were shouted and it felt like nothing could stop them now.

„And now for the organizational aspect of this important journey.". The master proceeded. „Our train goes at 8'o'clock in the morning tomorrow. Breakfast will be at 06:00am and we'll meet up in front of the guild at 07:15am. From there we'll go to the train station together. Cabs will be waiting for us, so be punctual. Are there any questions?"

Immediatly the thedosians rose their hands.

„What's a train?"

„What's a cab?"

They wanted to know. The guild master arched his fuzzy grey brows at them and his forhead knitted even more than before.

„You folks have no trains over there?", he asked with his raspy voice.

„Well, we wouldn't ask if we had them, would we?", Anders answered.

„Our transportation means. I'm no good in explaining these kind of things. You'll see soon enough by tomorrow morning anyway.", he dismissed their questions with a wave of his hand. Before the short man could move away a few mages surrounded him to clear a few other circumstances. Lucy for instance, told him she would meet up with them at the _train station_ , since she lived in relative proximity to the place and it would make no sense for her to lengthen the way by coming to the guild first. Same were Al and Bisca with their little Asuka. Others complained that the rendevouz times were too early and frequent moping of 'Who the hell functions that early already?', were heard. Whatever they seemed to have against the organization it didn't change the plan. Mirajane explained to them calmly that the tickets – whatever that was - already had been paid and that they would survive if they woke up early in the morning only once in their lives.

„You can resume your lost sleep in the train. And the journey won't be too long, only four hours.", she reassured them.

„Four hours?!", Natsu shouted at her. „I'm going to die!", he shouted again. „Pull yourself together, Natsu! Wendy and now Anders are with us.", Lucy reminded him.

„What?", Anders asked upon hearing his name.

„Natsu gets motion sickness.", Lucy explained with a plain voice. „Nothing a healer shouldn't be able to fix.", she ended.

„Oh, yes. I can do that.", Anders said and the scepticism over the coming journey was evident.

The day slowly but steadily came to an end. By nightfall Hawke and the other women retreated to their quarters and decided to get to sleep early, since they were going to wake up early as well the next morning. Mirajane had just checked on them briefly and left a tiny thing, she called an alarm clock, at Hawke's night desk. She turned something at the back of it and told them it would wake them on time the next morning. Hawke had just nodded but couldn't quite wrap her head around how that would exactly work.

„So what do you think those trains and cabs will be?", Isabela asked from underneath her blanket. She was more or less sober for the first time in the last three days.

„It is for transportation, so maybe something like a carriage?", Aveline suggested who was also lying in her bed already. „What do you think, Hawke?"

„I don't know. Many things are different here. Have you taken a look at Lucy's kitchen? She used devices and tools I have never seen before. I'm talking self heating cooking plates here.", she answered.

„Right.", Aveline agreed. „They seem to be - how do I put it? - more edvanced."

„What do you think, kitten?", Isabela now tried to involve the elf into the conversation, who was unusually quiet in the last few hours.

She sat up in her bed immediatly, as if she was alarmed. „W-what?", she stuttered. Isabela sat up now, too and furrowed her eyebrows at the mage. „What on earth is actually wrong with you?", Isabela asked irritated.

„N-nothing, why do you ask?", Merrill mumbled. „Normally you are the one who jumps at these questions first. And what have you been doing under that blanket that you haven't paid any attention?", the pirate replied.

„I am sorry, Isabela. I...am occupied?", Merrill answered dubiously.

„Really? And what occupies you so much? Or is it rather a who?", Isabela asked now half teasingly.

„You'll see in time, Isabela.", the elven mage ended the conversation, because she disappeared under her blanket now.

Hawke let herself fall onto her pillows after observing the exchange. Whatever Merrill hid under the blanket was the same she did when she wasn't at the barbeque, of that she was sure. Silently the Champion prayed to the Maker that the night would stay quiet at least today. They had absolutely no time and no nerve to deal with any of Merrill's usually sticky problems right now. And the prayer seemed to be answered.

Soon the women drifted off into sleep and the morning came as quickly as the night had fallen. A horrible ringing tone tore them all from their matresses. Hawke sat up in arlarm and struggeled to figure out what was going on. She tried to calm herself and steady her breath and after she more or less setteled down, she identified the source of the noise. It was Mirajane's clock.

 _That's how it wakes people up?_ The apostate mage went to the tiny troublemaker and turned it a few times around and examined it before she finally figured out how to silence it without letting it explode against the wall. Doubtlessly awake the other women cursed under their breaths, praying that the Maker or the Dread Wolf may take the noisy thing into whatever underworld available. At the same time they began to get ready for the day. Clothes and armour were neatly put on. Weapons fastened in their places and that was mostly about it. They hadn't much to take with them. The fall into another world was absolutely unexpected after all, so neither had brought anything with them.

At the front door of the guild it was just as noisy and busy as yesterday. It was crowded between the entrance and strange carriages the mages lined up in front, to put their luggage into spare rooms within the back of the odd devices. At the front they bulked out large and had doors and windows, revieling the view into the interior. Seats were visble that looked like they were large enough in size and number that they could carry up to 10 people. In each vehicle already sat someone at a wheel. A string was attached to their arms, while they patiently waited for everything and everyone to load in.

„So these would be the _cabs_?", Hawke said upon arriving at the meeting point.

„They are really carriages without horses after all.", Aveline remarked at the sight. The thedosians observed as the large bags were stuffed in first and then everybody began to settle who was going to ride on which cab and with whom they wanted to sit. A kind of childish display Mirajane tried to limit a bit.

„Please everyone, it is only a half an hour ride. Sit wherever you find a place for now." A bit slowly the mages finally began to settle in in whatever places available and the spot started to clear out steadily. That's when Erza showed up.

„Sorry I am late.", she apologized firmly.

„There you are-", Mirajane replied and the response was cut off so abruptly that it sounded like someone had just stuffed cotton into her mouth. „Oh Erza.", she then sighed and Hawke could immediatly see why. Erza carried a whole mountain of bags and other things. The largest bags were stuffed at the bottom and the size decreased the closer the pile got to the top. Spears and swords pierced out of the pile here and there and a few shields were attached at the colourful mountain of luggage as well. And since it was heavy of course and too much to carry in the arms she pulled them around in their own carriage. One of the cab people got out from his vehicle and widened his eyes at the sight.

„There is no place for that."

„I figured that much. That's why I brought these." the warrior mage anounced and pulled out an iron chain and two hooks out of her backpack. She attached the hooks on either side of the chain, then connected one end onto her own carriage and turned again to the cab man. „I hope its okay if you can pull it behind your car.", she told him. The man sighed. „I think we can do that.", he answered and took the other hook out of her hand and attached it at the back of his vehicle. Erza then took a seat within the same cab and that's when Hawke noticed that all mages have setteled in somewhere. Even her companions had sat down and the black haired woman finally looked for a seat as well. She found one next to Varric and Fenris was sitting behind them, with Mirajane, Elfman and Lisanna. At the window, next to Varric sat Erza and in the row in front of her she spotted the pink head of Natsu, Anders' blond ponytail and since next to him she saw nothing, she assumed that Louis and Happy had occupied that seat. The door next to her was shut closed and she turned aound to Varric who looked just as excited as she felt right now while he constantly scribbled something into his small note book.

„They put you in carriages without horses and you are still busy with writing?", she asked dubiously. She was still not quite sure how this thing would work. How was the device supposed to move on its own? She could think of no answer.

„That's the exact reason why I am writing, Hawke. Someone has to keep the memory."

And as if the vehicle took it as a sign, it suddenly began to rumble from underneath gently and the whole room constantly vibrated, causing the thedosians to jump slightly. „I swear, no author in Thedas has ever wrote of these kinds of things.", Varric said now and the excitemet was evident in his raspy voice. Finally the cabs moved and Hawke caught her breath as she saw the landscape slide along the windows.

After thrity tense minutes that seemed like more, due to the unknown technology, they finally arrived at what the master and the others called the _train station._ While they got out of the vehicles and bags and carriages of bags were unpacked and unlatched from the cabs, Lucy and Al and Bisca and Asuka, whith Makao, Romeo and Wakaba already stood at the main entrance and waved at them. Reunited, the large group of mages then followed Mirajane through the large crowded building, since she held the plan for the journey. Hawke looked curiously around. On either sides of the hallway were stairs leading to train platforms, as the signs had told her, and every platform was marked with a number and occasionally with an additional letter. Between the stairs she saw shops that made the building look like a market place. They mostly sold food and drinks but there was also a hat shop, a cloth shop and one even sold flowers. They went up a staircase marked with the number twelve. This was appearantly where their _train_ would go. As they arrived on the top Hawke's golden eyes widened and sparkled more and more while she took in the image in front of her. There stood a large bulking, black metallic thing with open doors and windows in fron of her. It seemed to go on endlessly on either side, as Hawke turned her head right and left to determine the complete size of this monstrosity. Her companions slowly regrouped around her, equally staring at the dark thing in front of them.

„By the maker...", Aveline murmurered and inhaled sharply.

„So...this is a train, folks.", Hawke confirmed their suspiscion.


	7. Not quite as planned

_Hello my dear readers and sorry, sorry, sorry for the long waiting!_

 _I really had a lot to do the past months and I only could snatch a few minutes here and there to work on the chapter. Also I often didn't know how to move one after I have reached a certain point in the story, so it also took me time to work around that. But now I have finally finished it and not a moment to late for Christmas. So take this chapter as my personal Christmas gift to you people, because you are simply the best!_

 _Merry Christmas to all of you. May you have blessed and beautiful feast days with your families and friends and a Happy new Year!_

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Not quit as planned**

After Hawke and her friends had spent a felt eternety staring at the long train in front of them, they had been politely ushered into the device that would bring them to their next destination. The man who showed them to their seats was still very young, not older than 20, tall and very, very lithe. He wore a rather strange uniform – as strange as everything Hawke had seen here anyway – in dark blue and white gloves. The lad was clearly enthusiastic, giving his best to provide the service that was expected of him. He was obviously still new to his job, as soon as he would get settled in, this overhelming and exagarated politeness would fade, Hawke thought.

The whole guild wound up having a whole train compartement for their own. The wagon, as it was called, had large windows lined up on every side and the seats were all wide, dressed in a velvetine green and faced eachother, giving them the opportunity to engage in conversation during the journey. It took another ten minutes until everyone arranged themselves into the groups they wanted to sit in. Natsu, Wendy and Gajeel opted directly for seats next to and around Anders, including all the mages's cats. The next seat group was taken by Hawke, Fenris, Erza and Aveline, while next to them, on the other side of the wagon, Lucy, Levy, Merrill and Varric shared one. On the seat group behind Hawke Cana and Isabela sat opposite of Makao and Wakaba with Romeo pressed between the two men somehow, though Hawke thought letting the boy near Isabela or Cana was rather counterproductive toward's the youngster's education.

Although the thedosians had quite the preimpression regarding horsless motion, they still couldn't sit still when the train finally began to move. With a horse signal ringing out from the device and a few puffs of steam, the landscape started to slide by in front of the windows. Merill frimly stuck to the glass, as if she wanted to make sure she wasn't dreaming or falling victim to some foul trick. Varric unloaded his jumpyness ino his note book, giving his own unresting fingers something to do at least. Aveline and Fenris on the other hand were both phenomenal portraits of brick hard stoicism. Even if they were on their nerves they didn't show it or at least, they tried to. Aveline sat, back frimly pressed against her seat and arms crossed, clawing her armoured fingers into her arms, as she stubbornly stared straight into the distance, careful to avoid any glimpse towards the window. Fenris on the other hand wasn't as successful. He held himself in the same position as Aveline, but his green elven eyes gave his anxiety away. They moved constantly, not focusing on any specific point, instead, studying every corner of the wagon, as if he expected a horde of darkspawn to storm them at any moment.

Anders on the other hand, may had been restless at the beginning but didn't seem to be able to pay much attention to the moving aparatus himself now. When the train started moving, his excitement was hardly concealed, eyeing and studying every corner just as Fenris did now, but with little less descretion. He was held at bay by the various cats, surrounding him, which was Anders' weak point and the only one way to calm him down, if he was agitated or angry. First Hawke had wondered why Anders seemed to enjoy such popularity among the dragon slayers. Then Lucy's words from yesterday came to her mind.

 _Motion sickness._

All three younger mages were now clinging onto some part of Anders' robe, as if holding onto dear life with the rest of their powers, as they were balancing on the edge of death. All three somewhat green around their noses and the usual sharp eyes of Gajeel and Natsu pale and without any energy in them. So Anders didn't pay much attention to his surroundngs anymore. His hands were firmly pressed into Natsu's pink head on his lap, as the former Grey Warden cast a spell on the younger mage. It didn't look like it was effective.

„Anders...please...help me...", Natsu brought out under great struggle before he clasped his hands before his mouth, trying desperatly to hold himself from throwing up into Anders' lap.

„Andraste's arse, Natsu, stay strong! I am doing everything I can!", Anders replied not less desperate. The light betwen his hands and the dragon slayer's head went a little brighter briefly. It was clear he was intensifying the magic.

In that exact moment another attendant, very much dressed like the one who ushered them into the wagon came through the door. This one however was signficantly older and less polite.

„Tickets, please.", he said dryly. Mirajane stood up from somewhere and took care of that particular request. Anders, who now lifted his gaze to the uniformed man saw a different opportunity. He waved his arm frantically at the man. „Um, excuse me, sir?", he said out loud through the corridor. The man who had finished controlling the tickets went over to Anders and dilebrately ignored the half dead mages around him. „Yes?", he asked tonelessly. „Can I have buckets or something? My friends here are very sick you see..."

„What? Do I look like a nurse to you? You should've considered that before you got onto the train.", he half growled at the healer. Anders just stared at him blankly for a moment, then he started to play as ignorant and indifferent about the situation as possible. „Well, if that's so, then I am not responsble if they vomit all over your precious velvet seats here.", he almost purred. The uniformed man pulled his face into a disgusted grimace and answered. „Alright, alright, no need to go all threatening on me. I'll see what I can do."

In the end the man just sent a younger employee into the wagon. „I'm sorry.", the girl apologized. „But these must suffice for the moment.", she ended her sentence and handed Anders a bundle of paper backs. „It'll do fine. Thanks.", Anders said and forced himself to smile. By that time Natsu still lay half dying on Anders lap and mumbled un-understandable things under his breath.

„Come on, Natsu. Get a hold on yourself.", Happy tried to cheer him up. Then the blue cat faced Anders. „Can't you do more?", he asked him. Louis reacted quite offended at that. The brown and white cat stammed his hands into his hip, swung his tail from one side to the other – a major sign of distress on cats – and replied: „He's already doing everything he can!" Then Louis looked to the side briefly and flew next to Anders' ear. What he wanted to tell him was meant for his hearing only, appearantly. „You _are_ doing everything, right? 'Cause it's not working, you know?"

Anders didn't respond first, he only stopped the magical flow abrubtly. „Well thank you for your vote of confidence!", he hissed without facing the cat. „I don't understand.", the healer then muttered. „Nothing seems to work."

„What?", Natsu whined, from underneath.

„I think, that's my fault...", Wendy squeaked from next to him.

„What do you mean?", the apostate asked.

„I...cast...a spell on Natsu...several times before...to surpress...the motion sickness.", the girl said, also struggling for every bit of power to do so.

„What do you mean?", Anders asked again.

„T-troya...is the spell's name. I might've used it...to..often on...him.", she answered under great distress.

„Oh Maker, please no resistence.", the older mage exclaimed. Wendy didn't respond to that. She clasped a hand over her mouth instead and grabbed one of the paper backs, to empty her stomach into it.

„Leave him!", Pantherlily now intervened. „Gajeel needs a bit of help here, too. And he certainly has no resistence." The oddly masculine and deep voice tolerated no excuses. So Anders laid Natsu onto the seat next to Wendy and moved over to Gajeel. „Hey, you can't leave him!", Happy protested. „I'm sorry, Happy, but there is nothing I can do for him now." He didn't get to form a new spell however. Another high pitched voice interrupted him. „And what about Wendy? She also needs help, more so than those two!", Charle demanded. Anders sighed in exasparation. This wasn't how he pictured telling the people back in Thedas about trains. „Alright, help me move her over here.", he said and went to the girl's side. He grabbed her shoulder as gently as possible, while Charle positioned herself at the other side, and they cautiously lead her to the place next to Gajeel, leaving a gap for Anders, to sit between the two. He placed each a hand on their heads and tried to cast the spell simultaniously on both patients. It was power draining. He had the ability to heal multiple people during a fight, but that was mostly injuries on the surface, stopping bleeding, surpressing pain. He usually had awaited Hawke and whoever was involved in his clinic for further treatment. But this was a new challange.

„How do you feel?", he inquired after a while.

„A..little better.", Gajeel growled. Wendy only nodded in agreement. But a little was not good enough.

„Can we help?", Hawke had stood up and walked to the seat group now. „It looks, like you are a bit short handed here."

Eh, a bit was good, he was completely overhelmed, but whatever. „Unless you have Elfroot, Andraste's Grace and a handful of Blood Lotus with you, I don't suppose there is anything you can do.", he answered. If he had even a fracture of the needed herbs he just named, he could at least mix a potion, a medicine against the nausea at least, but he hadn't. Oh, how he missed his clinic. It was filthy, yes, but it had everything he needed.

„I think, I still have a few dried out pieces of elfroot with me, but that's it.", Hawke aswered then.

„I-In my bag.", Wendy said now. Her voice was still weak, but a bit steadier than earlier. „I packed...pills. Against...the motion sickness.", she finally ended.

„You only remembered that now?", Anders hissed again and shot the girl a glance, while he tried to keep the spell on her steady.

„Sorry.", she apologized low voiced. „They are...supposed to be taken...half an hour before a journey...but I forgot."

Anders exhaled heavily „Okay. Somebody get me those pills, please?", he said out loud, adressing everyone who was currently free to help. „I'll go get them.", Erza then anounced. „Wendy, which bag was yourse?", she asked before she went. The luggage was stowed in a seperate wagon, next to their own, they were currently sitting in. „The pink, bag...with the clouds on it. Outer case.", the younger girl answered weakly. Erza only nodded and made her way, to the other wagon.

„Can we get those windows open?", Hawke asked into the round now, and walked to the glass to see if their was a suitable mechanism. „They normally should be.", Lucy answered and went to her side. The women found the mechanism, however only the upper bar of the glass was openable, but they did it anyway. The glass leaned in and fresh air immediatly streamed into the wagon. „A breath of fresh air does work miracles sometimes.", Hawke commented at that. And in fact, the young mages inhaled relieved and the unhealthy green colouration around their noses began to vanish. Regretfully, Natsu had already been the next after Wendy who filled a paper bag with the contents of his stomach at that point. After a few moments, Erza finally returned, in her hand a small white package, she handed over to Wendy. „Water.", the girl demanded, and a bottle of strange, transparent fabrication was handed to her. She picked out a small white pill and immediatly flushed it down with a sip of water.

„And?", Anders asked. He wanted to know if it helped.

„It takes time until the effect unfolds.", Wendy answered and leaned back into her seat again. Gajeel now also took a pill and Levy helped him, to swallow it down with the water, while Natsu needed help with taking the pill into his mouth in the first place. Happy helped keeping his lips open, as Lucy placed the medicine on his tounge. The blonde girl struggled to keep him sitting up at first, but Erza immediatly helped with that, holding his neck straight, as Lucy poured the water down his throat.

After half an hour that felt more like the half of an eternity to Anders the medicine's effect finally kicked in. The three mages relaxed and sacked back into their seats as they were still weakned from their motion sickness. The fresh air streaming in from the window also helped. Nontheless Anders kept a close eye on the three, frequently checking their unstable condition, applying a soothing spell here and there. At some point Isabela and Cana walked by, with Gray and Juvia in their tow. Both women offered a sip of their beer bottles they had managed to smuggle into the train, appearantly convinced that the toxic would help any deal.

„No! By the Maker, no!", Anders exclaimed. „Alcohol is the last thing they need right now. And under no condition you wiggle that stuff anywhere near Wendy. Understood?!". Charle flew at the side of the blond healer and nodded in agreement. „For the first time I'm inclined to support him here.", she said as smuggly as ever. To a certain extent he was grateful for the help of he white cat but he wouldn't actually ask for it. For so many years he thought there never could be a cat he wouldn't like. Charle convinced him of the opposite. But again, these cats were not normal. They were very much persons like he was, with opinions and all that. And opinions and personalities tended to clash sometimes. He didn't pay the women any more attention and returned to chanelling a current of healing magic between his three patients. As he did so, he reversed his opinion of Isabela's and Cana's actions as Gray moved over to Natsu. The dark haired ice mage had placed a foot on the chest of his collegue and was rocking him with it, trying to get any reaction from him. „Oy, Natsu! Pull yourself together man. That's pathetic, you know that?", he only said dryly. Anders sighed again. At least the women tried to help, but Gray showed no single bit of sympathy, at least not for Natsu.

„Hey, would you please stop that?!", Anders hissed at him. „Oh come on, he's only simulating. Am I right, Flame Brain?", Gray replied. In his last sentence he put more force into his feet and directed it straight at Natsu.

„Shut up, stripper...freak...!", Natsu brought out, his voice more a rasp than a shout.

„Gray-sama..." Juvia appeared at his side and wrapped both of her arms round his right one. „Juvia thinks the healer is right. Let them rest for now.", she added, her deep unreadable blue eyes fixed only on Gray. Why the woman talked about herself in third person, Anders did not know. But it sure was unnerving and he thought it wise of Gray, when he just followed the advice. To his great displeasure she turned to him now. Anders winced internally, when Juvia's empty eyes fixed on him. „Anders, right?", she asked him. Voice soft and emotionless. „Y-yes.", he answered quickly. „They will be okay, right?", she asked again. „Uh..yes. They just need a bit of rest as soon as we hit solid ground. Nothing serious, really.", he replied. Surprisingly Juvia smiled at him, appearantly slightly relieved at that. „Thank you, for your hard work.", she said than and dragged Gray away, who was still reluctant to do so.

„How's it going?", a raspy voice then asked. Anders only needed to look downwards to know who it was. The short guild master had appeared.

„Master..", Anders brought out. He was astonished of himself that he had incorporated the title so easily. „No need to worry. Just checking in on the brats.". Makarov waved his concern off.

„Well, Wendy's medicine helps and I am doing my best to keep them stable. I believe they will be fine as soon as they have solid ground under their feet.", Anders explained.

„That's good.", the short man replied. „Keep up the good work, lad.", he then added and patted Anders encouragingly on the shoulder. A surge of warm pride rushed through the healer. It had been so long since someone had appreciated what he was, instead of running off screaming to the templars. His lips quirked up and he nodded, feeling a part of his already invested mana return to him, giving him the strength to intensify the magical stream. Still, this was not what he imagined how his first ride on a train would go.

* * *

Truly after 4 hours the train arrived at its destination. The luggage was unloaded for them by the train staff and transported outside the significantly smaller train station. This time however they didn't have the autonomically moving cabs. These were ordinary wood carriages, each drawn by two horses. The luggage was loaded on two carriages specifically meant for the bags while the mages and non-mages spread into the others. Another half an hour ride they arrived in front of a partly wooden, partly stone building on a hill surrounded by a rich plant life that wasn't even remotely there around Kirkwall or even Ferelden. There were bushes with large petals and colourful flowers growing out of them. The buildng itself had a strange architecture. The edges of the roof were designed in flowing lines, while the windows seemed to be framed by wood and made out of...paper? Patterns of plants were worked into the window's material, which didn't reveal any sight into the rooms and on every level terraces made of wood were built onto almost every window. At the front door a very old woman greeted them. Her hair was entirely grey, but didn't seem to have lost its volume as it was tugged together in a very thick bun and decorated with flowers and whatever else accessories Hawke did not recognize. She wore also a very odd robe with wide sleeves and colourful, complicated motives worked into the fabric, held together by an equally colourful ribbon. The people behind her wore similar robes but not near as impressive as the woman's gown.

„Welcome, welcome, welcome.", she said, her voice rough and shaky from her age, while the other people behind her said the same and bowed respectfully.

„Welcome..", she said again. „...welcome to my inn. I am very happy to have you as my guests.", she ended the sentence and bade them with a gesture of her hand into the building. „My employees will take care of your luggage and show you to your rooms.", the old lady explained. So she appearantly was the owner of the inn. Following another gesture a few of the clerks who formerly stood behind her attended to the pile of bags left by the mages in front of the building. The mages were lead into a large atrium with a few seats in a bit of distance from a high desk where another clerk was standing. Mirajane went to that one straightly and looked like she was discussing something with him. Hawke took a moment to take in her environment. The inside was entirely made of wood. The doors had a similiar architecture as the windows, only the doors were longer in shape. Plants in pots were placed in every corner, all of them Hawke had never seen before. They were mainly made of a long fair coloured pipe-like stem, while only a few delicately shaped leaves branched out. On the table in between the seat formation where the fastest mages managed to place themselves in, stood a miniature tree, to Hawke's great surprise. It looked entirely like an ordinary tree, only it was impossibly small and Hawke wondered how that was even possible. White-pink petals grew very close to eachother at the upper part of the plant, forming a small bush of white and pink flowers. Next to it was a vase with smoking sticks. A not unpleasant scent was eminating from it, bathing the whole room in its aura. The salon itself was only dimly lit, making it seem comfortable and homely. A very pleasant welcome, Hawke decided. Not like the distasteful smell of vomit and cheap beer with which the Hanged Man usually greeted its guests...or any other tavern in Kirkwall or Ferelden.

„Maker's balls...", she suddenly heared Varric mutter.

„Something wrong?", she asked as a response and the other thedosians turned their attention to the dwarf.

„This place must cost a fortune. Didn't they say they don't have that much money?", he asked somewhat anxiously. It wasn't that Varric didn't like luxury, quite the contrary. But he didn't like people spending a fortune for him when he could and wanted to pay for himself, more so when he knew the people in question were deeply in debt, as the Fairy Tail mages had told hem a few days ago.

„Perhaps they just have set the definition for luxury higher than we do back in Thedas, where you have to pay ten sovereigns if you don't want cockroaches crawling underneath and above you when renting a room.", Fenris replied with sharp sarcasm. There was however not much more time for further discussions. Mirajane returned from the high counter and a few clerks surrounded her. One of the inn's employees spoke then.

„We will now show you to your rooms, please follow me.", the young man said and gave the crowd a very polite nodd. The mages were lead up a wooden stair case. There was particular trouble with Erza's luggage. Multiple clerks surrounded the carriage and struggled with heaving it up the stairs. That took a few minutes before Erza had enough. The warrior mage waved them off with an armoured hand and grabbed the front of the carriage herself now, heaving the transporter with ease. As the poor clerks, who couldn't acomplish the very task that their customer was now doing herself, sighed in exhaustion and frustration, all with a look of disbelief on their faces. However Erza didn't heave the tranporter all the way up either. She managed to climb a few stairs, but stopped and muttered something un-understandable for Hawke, but which Aveline appearantly identified.

„I'll help.", she said promptly and heaved the back end of the transporter up. Together they finally managed to get Erza's stuff onto the end of the staircase and onto the level where their rooms were located. The clerk who had adressed them first then proceeded to lead them down the hallway, dividing the group as they arrived at a corridor that branched out into two directions. Again gender seperation. Men went to the left and women to the right. There were only few exceptions; of course Asuka and her parants had one for themselves. On their side the women had two rooms in total. Hawke, Aveline and Isabela were stuffed into the same room as Lucy, Erza, Wendy, Levy and Cana. Mirajane, Lisanna, Juvia and Maki – a purple haired mage with glasses – shared the other appearantly much smaller room. That's when Hawke remembered Varric's concerns. Too expensive, he had worried. That was appearantly true, hence why eight people were stuffed into one single room to share, nine, if Charle was included, though the cat was very small and would most likely share her resting place with Wendy, so she would not take up that much room for herself.

The clerk slid the wood and paper door open and revealed a vastly large room. The women entered and Hawke took a moment to examine it. Wooden floor, eight white, neatly arranged mats – there was more than enough room between and around the mats, so even though eight in number, they would have more than enough moving space – windows just in the same fashion as the doors, again with beautiful leaf and flower patterns. At the other right hand side of the room a short, but long table was arranged, decorated with pink and white flowers and again a small bottle with smoking sticks that spread its scent throughout the whole room and around the table eight pillows, not very thick or large, clearly not meant to sleep upon, probably meant for sitting. On the left hand side was another wooden framed paper door. The clerk didn't hesitate to go there first.

„You will find the bathroom here, as you can see with everything that you may need. The floor and sinks were just redone last month.", he said enthusiastically, while he slid that door open, too and turned on the light for a better demonstration. He turned it off again and slid the door closed.

„And the highlight...", he said, as he rushed to the windows, sliding them open now. They revealed a wooden, wide terrace and a breathtaking view on the beach, a small town that stood nearby and wide acres of forest. „...the best view in all of Fiore.", the clerk ended his sentence. The women's jaws fell slightly open while they took in the sight. It was like an artists's illustration. Isabela marched unabashed forward to the window where the clerk was still standing. „Now this is a view worth paying for.", she said with audible satisfaction. The clerk smiled at that with a hint of pride.

„Before I forget...", he then said a bit hastily. „We ask our honored guests to take off their street shoes while roaming on this level of the inn. House shoes and, if our guests wish, robes can be provided to ensure a comfortable stay in our quarters, while keeping them clean at the same time.", the young man ended his sentence, very politely and bowed deeply.

„Oh that won't be a problem for me. I don't even wear shoes.", Merrill answered him, as innocently as always, and wiggled one of her bare feet, slightly risen in the air in front of herself. Hawke had a hard time to keep herself from laughing. While Merrill somehow had a point there, it wasn't really necessarry to point that out. Fortunately the clerk left that one uncommented and left hastily, which spared Hawke and the rest from a time of uncomfortable explanations. After the wooden door slid shut behind them the women immediately proceeded with taking off their shoes, just as the clerk asked of them. Aveline looked odd without the legg greaves and leather boots she usually wore. The combination of bare feet and a full armoured upper body was defnitely a sight to get used to. Merrill, as pointed out, wore no shoes and Isabela took off her brown over-knee boots. Only then Hawke realized that the boots actually covered up a large portion of Isabela's revealed body. Sure, she always wore that dress or whatever that was, with her deep cleavage, revealing half of her ass all the time, but taking off the boots was a new level of body accentuation, even for the pirate queen. Hawke luckily, wore long pants underneath her own legg greaves, so it didn't look as strange as on the other two humans when she just walked around bare footed. The sensation under her toes was not a bad one. The floor was sure hard, but clean and actually warm, so she wouldn't mind even if she didn't get the promised house shoes. The female Fairy Tail mages, proceeded then to put their clothes into the drawers and closets that stood at the same wall, where their appearant dining table was located. Unpacking proved to be a challange for Erza un-surprisingly. Already at the start she had problems with moving all her stuff without causing her armour and weapons falling on their feet in a mighty avalanche. Delicately she opted for removing the long pointy parts, that bulked out from her pile of luggage, then she carefully removed the shields and whatever else was attached to the surface. Only then she proceeded on the actual, pile, the inner core one could say, which consisted of clothes, shoes, underwear and other things Erza appearantly found worth taking with her. In the end however it all didn't fit into the closet naturally, only her soft clothing barely found room in there. The metal pieces of armor and weaponary and some other clothes were just piled into the corner. Hawke observed the by-play with light amusement.

Meanwhile, Isabela, Aveline and Merill examined the mats, lying on the center of the large room.

„I suppose those are our beds?", Hawke asked them still standing. It was quite the contradiction. All that beauty and luxuary and then this, not even real beds, just mats with a pillow and a blanket.

„It has sheets and a pillow. Close enough I'd say.", Merrill said, sliding a hand over the white fabric.

„I can live with it.", Isabela said dryly.

„Really? From all people I'd thought you would be the first to complain.", Aveline replied.

„I admit I love big things...", she said mischieviously, clearly expecting a reaction to her two-folded sentence, but when Aveline just remained stone cold in her face she only sighed in frustration, pissed that her teasing didn't have the desired effect. „Especially if they're shiny. But your forgetting something, Big Girl."

„And that would be?", Aveline asked.

„I was a pirate. I sailed the seas of the known...of our known world for days, weeks and months. Do you think we had soft beds to sleep in? The best thing there was, was a mat like this one...", Isabela began her answer and gestured wth wide arms at the mats underneath them. „No, not even like these. There was one single, dirty and torn mat, which was the best bed and of course it was reserved for the captain which was me. My men had to sleep on the bare, wet floor in the bulk of the ship and often we didn't sleep at all."

„Wow, slow down, woman. There was no need to start a whole speech on me.". Aveline waved her off.

„Yes, there is. You often seem to think that I'm some...", Isabela answered.

„...unresponsible whore?", Aveline ended her sentence.

„See? That's exactly what I mean. I am not." A brief pause followed in which Aveline arched her eyebrow at the pirate.

„Okay, maybe the whore-part is true. But responsible I can manage, when I need to. How else have I kept my men aboard my ship in line and alive?"

„The work of a captain, eh?", Aveline half laughed.

„You got it, Big Girl!", Isabela grinned back.

In that moment Wendy let herself fall on a mat right at the opposite of the older women.

„Do you still feel sick, Wendy?", Hawke asked the child. „I'm better now...", the blue haired mage replied. „Thanks to Anders-san."

„Rubbish!", her cat Charle exclaimed. „That Anders is uncapable, incompetent and stupid. And that calls himself a healer!?", the white cat complained. „Charle, stop it! Anders-san did everything he could. You're not fair.", Wendy said with a little more force but her voice was naturally not very firm and still weak from the journey.

„Pah!", Charle only said and sank down to the mat where Wendy now lay flat on her back. Hawke already had the impression that Charle was a rather snobbish and difficult cat, but now she was just plain insulting towards Anders which made her increasingly annoying and unsympathetic to Hawke.

The other young women finished dipositing their clothes and tools in the closet and walked over to the mats to sit down around Wendy and opposite of Hawke.

„So, what do we do now?", Levy opened up the discussion.

„How about going down to the beach? I think I spotted a nice bar down there.", Cana contributed and cocked her head to the window.

„Ale on the beach? Sounds good to me.", Isabela agreed.

„Can you think of something other than alcohol for a change?", Lucy asked half laughing.

„Either way, I think the beach is a good idea. We can relax, breath some fresh air and swim.", Erza intervened into the conversation.

„Yes! Than I can finally wear my new bikini!", Levy exclaimed excitedly.

„What's a bikini?", Aveline asked then.

„A swimsuite.", Lucy gave the plain answer.

„That's not really helping the imagination.", Hawke commented.

„It's basically a bra and a slip.", Cana said.

„Oooh, I think I like where this is going?", Isabela said cheerfully.

„By the maker...", Aveline sighed.

„Oh!", Lucy exclaimed now and clasped her hand on her forhead. „You don't have any swimsuites, right?", the blonde mage realized.

„We didn't really plan a beach trip to be honest.", Hawke answered truthfully.

„Then there is only one thing for it!", Erza said almost too determined.

„Yeah, shopping!", Levy again.

„Right, there is a small town nearby, we can look for swimsuites in the shops there.", Cana suggested.

„But what about Wendy? We can't leave her alone, can we?", Merrill threw in now.

„It's okay.", the girl herself replied now. „I just need to lie down a bit longer and I'll be fine."

„I'll stay with her. You go on with your shopping.", Charle added dryly.

And so it happened. The women didn't let much time pass until they grabbed their shoes and walked out of the sliding door. On their way they met with Mirajane, Lisanna and Juvia, who happened to have similiar plans.

„What a nice coincindence.", Lisanna said enthusiastically, to which Mirajane nodded in agreement.

„The more the merrier."

Juvia on the other hand kept silent and just followed the large feminine group out of the inn.

It turned out that the town wasn't located far from the inn, only a 15 minute foot march took them to the center of the place. The town itself wasn't very big and thus very overseeable. Shops were easily found and the various roads quickly memorized. And after a few moments the women found just the shop they needed. Already from the windows they could spot a variety of swimsuits and bikinis exposed for the regular passenger to see. Like the rest of the place the shop was largely built from wood and the window's decoration had a maritime theme, as the place was located along a coast and in direct proximity to the sea. As such the towns people seemed to regard the water as a major part of ther identity. As it was so often the case with the majority of cities at the sea. The mages and non-mages entered the shop and Hawke and her thedosian friends were overhelmed by the sheer mass of swim clothes they were confronted with. The whole room was hung out with swimsuites, shorts and full body suites, she saw in one corner. One of them was pulled over a doll of some sorts, equipped further with large bottles on the back and a mask, hiding the lower half of the doll' face. The apostate Champion wondered silently for what that suit would be used, but didn't ask because she didn't want to reveal that she and probably her companions yet again didn't know worth a damn about anything.

„Okay, who doesn't have a swimsuite and still needs one?", Lucy then started the search and looked into the round expectantly.

„No volunteers?", Lucy asked again, but this time her cheerfullness fading. A half minute passed until Isabela finally stepped forward.

„You are such bores, you know that?", she commented with slight dissapointment, directed at the lack of enthusiasm coming from her friends.

„I'll start. Let's see what we can find."

In the next half an hour the pirate queen was surrounded by Cana, Lucy and Mirajane, all of them counseling about what would suite Isabela best, colours, forms, designs, everything was discussed. They dragged the rivainy woman from one hallstand to another, selecting a model, holding it against her frame, deciding if it had potential and put it into a basket if it had. If not it was put right back from where it came.

In the meantime the others looked around, put on other things, like sun hats and bags for a test and trying on, dark glasses.

„Why are these glasses dark? You can't see with dark glasses.", Merrill questioned as she took one exemplar from a hallstand nearby and eyed the object dubiously. It was known in Thedas that some people had a natural sight weakness. It was further known that these sight weaknesses could be corrected through special glasses, manufactured to improve the vision of these particular people. But dark glasses were strange.

„That's because they're sun glasses.", Levy explained. „Meant to shield from too bright sunlight, so they're darkened."

And just like that it suddenly started to make sense. In retrospect it was the only logical conclusion and not so hard to get to that particular idea.

„Alright, we're done, what do you think?", Isabela's voice suddenly interrupted the discovery. The pirate queen stepped out of a cabin, formerly concealed with a red curtain. The sight that offered itself to the thedosians was certainly one to get used to. Isabela herself actually looked as usual, only her normal clothes she did not wear. Instead her body was only covered at the most important parts, leaving almost nothing to imagination. She wore a very scarce bikini, base colour beige, laced with a leopard pattern in brown and black. Triungalar pieces of fabric covered up the full round breasts, of the dark skinned woman, held in place only by thin cords, tied together behind the back and around the neck. The panties only matched the design, again a triangle, covering her privat parts, but tied together with the same thin cords on either side. Colourful pearls decorated the cords around the neck and the hips, to add more character to the piece. It suited her just perfectly, as if it was fabricated especially for her.

„Wow, you look great, Isabela!", Levy shouted excitedly. Erza nodded in agreement. „Simply perfect."

„Wait...", Aveline threw in. „You're not expecting me to go out in that!" the warrior said and gestured with her hand up in down in Isabela's direction.

„Of course you have objections.", Isabela snorted.

„Isabela, that's basically underwear. You can't walk around almost naked!"

„What if I told you that it is because _it is_ basically underwear that I want to wear it. I get to wear a bra legitimatly on its own. No chance I'd miss that!", the pirate answered.

„Don't you go swimming in your world?", Lisanna asked now. Up until now they hadn't much of a chance to talk to Mirajane's younger sister.

„Some do. But it's not common.", Hawke answered.

„And those some definitly don't wear their smalls in public."

„To some level, I'd say you are right.", Cana intervened.

„What?", Isabela blurted out and turned instantly to Cana.

„I mean that it is basically underwear. It doesn't cover up much more than the regular bra but there seems to be a double standard here. It is okay to see a girl in a bikini, but everyone turns red the instant she stands in regular underwear? Eventhough the underwear technically covers up much more? Sorry, that's not logical.", Cana began to explain.

„Sorry, but I don't see how you agree.", Aveline responded.

„I mean if it is such a taboo to see this much skin of a person, then it should always be. Then you don't wear underwear standardized swimming suites when underwear is scandalized in public. The other way around it shouldn't be such a problem to see someone in regular underwear when the same amount of skin is visible on the beach. Anything else just makes no sense.", the brunette ended her explanation and brushed a hair strand behind her ear.

„That...was surprisingly intelligent..", Aveline commented. Cana laughed a cold laugh at the discrediting note. „Hey, just because I drink a lot of booze doesn't mean I'm stupid, thank you very much.", Cana answered ruefully and returned her attention to Isabela. „I take it you'll buy this one or do you want to try on the others, too?"

„Hm...I think I have already made up my mind, but I'll try the others on as well.", Isabela replied and vanished behind the cabin's curtain once more. Another half an hour passed, in which Isabela wore a yellow bikini, a black one and a single pieced red swimming suite, labled by the native mages as a monokini. In the end everyone agreed that the leopard printed bikini suited the pirate queen best and said woman walked out of the cabin with her favorite piece in one hand and the others she gave to a passing clerk.

„May I be of assistance?", the clerk asked. Before anyone could react Isabela took up the conversation.

„Perhaps. You see, my red haired, frackle faced friend here desperately needs a new swimsuite but she won't let me help her. I guess she just doesn't trust my taste." The rivainy rouge walked over to Aveline and put an arm around the guard captain's shoulder demonstratively. „Do you find it in your competence to help her?", Isabela asked now directly and tilted her hand to Aveline. The warrior's jaw dropped almost to the floor but she recieved no chance to free herself from the scheme. The clerk on the other hand seemed to take Isabela's request as a personal challenge. The young woman, with brown pig tails and round glasses straightned up momentarily and her face went dead serious. „If I couldn't I would bring eternal disgrace over this place!", she anounced determinedly and grabbed Aveline by the wrist, surprisingly pulling her frimly along, considering her lithe almost fragile stature in comparison to Aveline's battle honed muscles. The clerk disappeared with the warrior behind the stands of countless swimsuits, chose a dozen of them, lied them on Aveline's frame, quickly assesing if the chosen piece had potential or not and then stuffing it into Aveline's arms, if it had or tossing it away without direction, if it didn't. The little woman, shoved the taller Aveline into the change cabin. After a few minutes the red haired woman, re-appeared from behind the cabin's curtain, wearing a turquois, single piece, which however didn't cover up much more than Isabela's bikini. The whole back, except for the bottom of course was free, save for a few strings, attached to the pieces that concealed Aveline's chest, providing more stablity in that particular region of her body. The cleavage literally reached the warrior's navel, but at least covered the rest of the stomach. Like Isabela's bikini, this single piece also left the leggs bare. The whole make-out earned Aveline an impressed whistle from Isabela and a wicked yet appreceative grin.

„Nice! Didn't know you could look sexy like that.", the pirate queen remarked. Eventhough Isabela's words held a mocking undertone, they were not untrue. The design and the light pastel colour suited Aveline's fair skin tone and the red hair just perfectly and highlighted the bright green eyes even more. Aveline on the other hand didn't look really amazed at the result. A bit lost she held an arm up in front of her chest and the other wandered somewhere around her hips and thighs. She clearly didn't like it to be revealed in such a manner.

„I don't like this...", she muttered from between her teeth.

„But you look great.", Mirajane answered.

„They're right, Aveline. You really do look amazing in that. Isabela wasn't just teasing you for a change.", Hawke said now and tried to put as much emphasis into her words as possible.

„Is it really necessary to show so much skin?", she asked uncomfortably.

„Try to view it from a practical point. Too much clothing makes you heavy in the water and prevents you from swimming properly. Wearing only little, and from water rejecting materials is the best way to move in the water. Might as well look good, when we have to go half naked.", Erza intervened now. Aveline's fellow warrioress seemed to have hit the right words, as Aveline visibly relaxed and let her arms fall to her side.

„When you say it like that...it actually makes sense.", the guard captain replied, agreeing reluctantly. „I think I'll take it."

„Don't you wish to try on the others, ma'am.", the clerk asked her.

„No, the others are even closer to nothing and too fancy. This'll do just fine."

„Very well.", The clerk replied and took the models she had chosen for her potential customer and re-ordered them into the stands, while Aveline went back into the cabin and changed back into her armour.

Next in line for a new swimsuit was Merrill. She too had been given a variation of models, chosen by the same clerk, but Merrill took actually the time to try all of them. In the end she had trouble deciding between a monokini, in a soft rosé and a significantly fancier bikini in forest green. The breast piece was not quite as accentuating as Isabela's. It concealed the whole band around the breast and consisted of layers of girlish quillings. The lower parts were actually very small panties, but further concealment was provided by a short skirt, again with quillings, like the breast band. As all the present women agreed that the bikini was the better choice, as it added character to the slender frame of the elf, Merrill yielded to that decision.

Finally Hawke was in line. This time the clerk had actually trouble finding something for the Champion of Kirkwall. The little woman found a few pieces but some of them Hawke rejected because they didn't appeal to her, mostly because they really were way too scarce, little more than a few strings. Then suddenly the clerk truned around. „I think I found just the one for you.", she anounced and showed her a whine red bikini. The upper piece was actually a bra, in the middle, laced with a bow around a rose. Wide bands were attatched to the bra, that could be fastened around the neck and the back, to provide the necessary stability. The lower pieces, were panties, that could be bound on either side, smiliar to Isabela's model, only the strings weren't strings, but again wide bands. Hawke took the bikini and like her friends before her, dissappeared into the cabin. It took her a few minutes, until she slid out of her armour and into the swimsuite. As she came out a few gasps were heard from the people who saw her.

„Oh, do I look that bad?", she asked slighty nervous.

„Are you kidding? You look amazing!", Lucy exclaimed

„You got some nice curves there, Hawke. I'm almost getting jealous. But only almost.", Cana laughed and gave her a wink.

„I think Fenris will be drooling after you if you show up in that one.", Isabela agreed and laughter broke out from the group. Hawke's cheeks reddened slightly and she smiled. She didn't want to show off or impress anyone, but getting herself in shape once in a while didn't hurt either. So she too had decided and stood now, back in her armour and with the chosen model in her hand in the middle of the shop. In all their excitement the thedosian women had forgotten one crucial point. They had no money to pay with.

„Uhm, you don't happen to have brought a sack of sovereigns with you, like Varric the other day?", Isabela asked rethorically.

The women exchanged dissapointed glances and then Merrill sighed. „Well, it was fun trying all these on, though."

„But we still have some jewles to spare. That'll be enough.", Lucy said.

„No, wait.", Hawke said. „I remembered, that Merrill and I also still have some jewles."

„We do?", the elf asked hopefully.

„Yes, from our last job in the exceed village. It isn't much, but we can pay for ourselves." Erza stepped then forward and took a look at the coins in Hawke's hands.

„Hm...", the red head then made. „That won't pay all of it." Hawke's hope diminished slightly as she studied her money again. She still wasn't familiar with the currency in this world, so she still found it hard to determine the worth.

„Okay, how about this? What you have is enough to pay half of the sum and we provide the other half. We have a deal?", Lucy suggested. Hawke turned to her friends for advice. She almost could read their thoughts. On the one hand they wanted these swimsuits but on the other hand they thought that they already sat enough on the guild's purse. The champion hesitated.

„Come on, it's really okay. That's what friends do, right? We can call in the favor later.", Cana now encouraged them, acompanied by a few enthusiasic nodds of the other mages. Hawke and her companions exchanged again a few glances, what ultimately lead to the decision of accepting the offer. The very motivated clerk from earlier completed the purchase with them and with a very self satisfied grin packed the new swimsuits neatly into some paperbags that had the same encryption on them as the sign on top of the shop. The large group of women left and actually wanted to make their way straight back to the inn. „Wait.", Levy then stopped them. „I don't know about you guys, but I am really hungry. Wanna catch something to eat before we return?", the short blue haired mage asked. „Now that you mentioned it. Shouldn't drink with an empty stomach either.", Cana suplied.

„Cana!", Mirajane scolded her. „What? I'm being responsible here?!", the brunette defended herself which earned her warm laughter from the rest. Even Mirajane had to chuckle a bit, though she obviously fought to remain serious here. In the end they found what seemed to look like a tavern: another wooden building, but this one was located closer to the shores of the ocean. As a result the meals they offered consisted mostly of fish or other things found in the sea. Fenris would had hated it. They all had a cheap menu, fried breaded salmon in bread served with a plate of a rather strange dish: fried potatoes, cut into stripes. Again the Fairy Tail mages paid for them and again they very enthusiastically silenced their protest. At the end they returned to the inn and stumbled across the men, strangely in front of the same shop where they had bought their swimsuits earlier.

„What a very pleasant surprise!", Isabela greeted them.

Varric, Anders and Fenris turned around. While Varric and Anders, again accompanied by the white and brown exceed Louis who flew by his side, looked satisfied, Fenris on the contrary wasn't pleased at all. His frown became deeper and his back was slightly crooked as if the elf wanted to escape within himself. It was not hard to tell that he was upset, again. Hawke upon seeing the mood of her (boy)friend, of course moved quickly to him. „Fenris, what's wrong?", she asked concerned. „Being dragged out against my will, to be pushed into some filthy shop that doesn't even sell real clothes and being forced to strip down and try on one of these awfully colourful pants? Well, I don't know what possibly could be wrong!", he hissed sharply. Hawke sighed at the attitude of the former slave. She could understand that shopping could be stressful, especially if forced to the activity but being really that angry...?

„Oh come on, Broody! You got new pretty pants! Cheer up!", Varric said with a smile and patted his shoulder.

„They are not pretty!", he hissed again.

„Of course they are! You finally get some colour into that gloomy, black warderobe of yours!", Varric said.

„But I didn't ask for it!", the elf continued to protest.

„You do realize that you can't go swimming in that armour.", Anders now said.

„And what if I don't want to go swimming?", Fenris replied.

„Oh, you can't swim, can you?" It was Louis who now intervened and floated right in front of Fenris's face, looking very satisfied with himself.

„Wrong, I can, you fury ball of insolence!", Fenris almost spat. While Anders looked angry himself now, offended that Fenris insulted his cat. Louis himself however remained calm, not letting himself be impressed by the elf's unfriendliness.

„But why wouldn't you want to swim?", he asked now.

Fenris let a deep growl of frustration escape his throat.

„For the Maker's sake! You are a cat! Don't cats hate water?", he asked now agressively.

Louis still not impressed replied calmly.

„Oh, that's just a prejudice! I don't like it when my parents force me to bath though, but the day is steaming hot! A dip in cool water is just the right thing!"

„Aargh!". He just growled and seemed to regard this as the end of the little exchange. Anders gave him a mischievous look and focused his attention on Hawke.

„I for my part have just found the right pants for the beach!", he anounced. He seemed to have put his experience from the journey on the train behind him.

„Oh really? How do they look?", Hawke asked to deepen the conversation with the apostate healer.

„They are perfect! I didn't realize I needed them until I saw them! Blue with golden stripes on the side and they are so comfortable, almost as if they are not there!", he answered.

„Blondie forgot to mention that they aren't pants but basically fancier, water repelling smalls.", Varric teased.

„Oh, that sounds interesting!", Isabela grinned wickedly, while Anders backed away from her.

„I don't want to imagine that!", Aveline commented. As the general mood lightened up a bit, it seemingly went a little colder just around Fenris who pulled back into himself even more.

* * *

After a seemingly eternal struggle Fenris finally let himself be dragged down to the beach.

„I don't want to go!", he had rejected the other men's plans to just spend the rest of the day lying around under the hot, bright summer sun.

„But why did we buy you swimming shorts?", Natsu had replied annoyed, as he had managed to get up from his motion sickness.

„Well, I didn't ask for it. If you would have listened you would know that!", Fenris had growled back, his patients steadily decreasing by the minute.

„Man, why are you such a dick?", Gray now had intervened. Fenris had had really to hold on to himself to keep his fist from jumping into Gray's face.

„I am not going to let myself be afftected by petty insults.", Fenris had growled again.

„Hey", a low voice now had mingeled itself into the exchange. As the men had looked they had seen Laxus coming out of the bathroom as he had closed the door behind him.

„If he doesn't want to go, leave him. No point in starting an argument over this.", the blond mage had said. Up until this point the master's grandson hadn't interacted much with the thedosians. Now that he had been put into the same room with them, he practically had had no other choice. „Exactly. Indeed, very wise words, Laxus-sama!", his friend Freed, the mage with the long green hair had agreed a little bit too enthusiastically and positioned himself demonstratively next to the tall, blond man.

„Don't like to admit it, but the thunder bolt here is right. Dragging him out against his will is more trouble than it is worth. Would be pissed off, too, if I was him, to be honest.", Gajeel now also had taken Laxus' side.

„You are taking his side?!", Natsu had protested out loud.

„Wa are not taking anyon's side. But your not gaining or losing anything if he comes along or not!", Laxus had rumbled back.

Fenris had felt earnistly surprised at the mage's support and thanked him mentally, remained otherwise silent to it and hoped that it was dealt with however.

„You are right. You boys run along. I'll deal with him.", Varric now had intervened. „What about you?", Laxus had answered questioningly. „You guys want to go swim, go. We brought him with us, so he is our problem. We'll catch up as soon as possible.", the dwarf had explained. Laxus hadn't commented on that and shrugged. The blond mage had grabbed a towel, grabbed Gray and Natsu (under great protest) and left the room with Gajeel and Freed.

As soon as the other men had left the room Varric built himself in front of the pouting elf who sat on his sleeping mat. For some unexplicable reason Anders had stayed, too, though behind Varric and leaned against the doorframe.

„So Broody, you gonna stop pouting here or do we have to dragg you out with iron chains?", Varric had asked him.

Fenris had felt dissapointment spread within him upon the dwarf's remark. Of all people Varric had been the one he had liked at least, specifically because he could understand instead of giving him a speach of how the world had been too beautiful to let it just pass by with a frown.

„I thought I made myself clear.", Fenris had hissed as a respone. Varric had sighed.

„Broody...Fenris. I understand you have a problem with mages and I understand your reasons. But can't you just see them as ordinary people who are trying to help us?"

„It is not that simple.", Fenris had respnded now less agressively. He had already discussed this with Hawke. He already had worked on the issue with her specifically. He could tolerate the other mages as her friends or team mates, but nothing more. But a whole guild of mages surrounding him had been too much. The only other exception he had made was Asuka and only because she had been a child. Her sleeping heritage still had bothered him nontheless. Fenris couldn't pretend to be friends with everyone all the time, when his problem was a so much bigger one.

„Fenris, I am not doing this because I like to get on your nerves. I only want you to start to be happy in your life. Please, don't let your youth go to waste like this", Varric had begged.

„Danarius didn't care if my youth would go to waste or even my entire life.", Fenris had responded.

„But Danarius isn't here anymore is he? You want to be free so much, but you're still hanging on him like a tick sucking a dog's blood.", Varric had tried to reason. Fenris hadn't answered this time. What had any of them known of being a slave? What had they known about the breaking? It hadn't been just the body they had broken, it had been his very soul and that couldn't be healed ever.

„Alright. Then stay here. I won't bother you any longer. Should you change your mind, you know where we are.", Varric then finally had sighed and turned on his heel to leave, grabbing a towel, provided by the inn on the way. He had joined Anders by the doorframe, who straightened himself now and for an unknown reason fixed his gaze on him specifically. Fenris had started to feel increasingly uncomfortable under the apostate's gaze.

„So that's it? We are leaving without him?", Anders had asked Varric without averting his eyes from Fenris.

„So it would seem.", Varric had rumbled with a shrug.

„A pity. Then I guess you won't see Hawke only dressed in her new whine red bikini...", Anders had responded. Fenris' ears had twitched at Anders' last remark. _Whine red bikini?_ During the forced shopping tour he had picked up that it was a very scarce, two pieced swimsuit for women. Against his will his mind had started to produce very explicit images of the Champion that had shot the blood into his head. Only in the last second the elf had managed to get a grip on and stop himself from fainting. _Maker take you, abomination!_ , he had thought as he shook away his fantasies. When he had opened his eyes the two men had been gone and he had been alone.

And so Fenris found himself cowering on a towel underneath the shadow of a parasol, dressed in his green and silver swimming shorts, watching as the mages did all sorts of pointless things under the unmerciful rays of the sun.

Isabela and Cana immediately took over the next bar they found and treated themselves to a variety of colourful, probably alcoholic drinks. That both women wore the very scarce bikinis was no real surprise. More surprising was Aveline who wore an equally sarce piece in mint green, sitting next to the warrior mage Erza. Fenris actually had to blink multiple times in order to confirm the sight. The scarlet haired mage had actually taken off her upper bikni piece and lay there under the sun, at least turned on her stomach, so her important parts were mostly covered. Juvia tried to get the Ice Mage's attention, but the man disregarded her comletely as he chased after Natsu instead into the water and both men began competing and comparing their magic skills in the water, as the area around them froze and melted in exchange and caused a lot of uninvolved people to leave the water.

Fenris rolled his eyes in annoyance. These mages always thought there was only them in the world.

Suddenly the shadow he sat in became bigger. The elf looked in front of himself only to see Hawke looking down on him, almost only as the Maker had formed her. A whine red bra cupped and formed her chest just perfectly and the lower piece finished the rounds of her curves as if it was made spiecifically for her. For a minute Fenris forgot to breath and sucked in his breath sharply.

„Want to come join us in the water?", she asked, her smile almost as radiant as the sun.

„I...I actually didn't...", he stuttered. He didn't plan on splashing around in the water. He only came down as a favor to Varric, or so he told himself.

„Oh come on, the water looks great!", Hawke exclaimed now. Her happiness was un-overseeable and it pleased and hurt him at the same time. In Kirkwall Hawke never had let rage or anger get the better of her, but the exhaustion was visible, the pressure and the pressing mourning for her mother, taken away so brutally by some insane blood mage. All these things he could see in her tired eyes and he could also see something he knew all too well; loneliness. As much as she sought out the company of her friends, of him, he could also see that she thought she stood alone with all the responsibilty that came as the Champion of Kikrwall. Now? Now she was only happy, relaxed, as if Kirkwall never happened. And Fenris thought she deserved some tranquility. So he then just stood up. She held out a hand and he automatically took it. He didn't question the gesture, forgot about the space he actually needed and gave in into the moment, just this once. She immediately dragged him to the blue glittering waves of the ocean.

„Perhaps we should entertain some distance to Gray and Natsu!", he told her as they went down to the water. Her laughter, pearling and clear mingled with the sound of the moving waves. „Why? At least it doesn't get boring near them.", she jested but ultimately did drag him a bit further from the battling mages. Shortly after they were joined by little Wendy and her white cat Charle, as well as Lucy and Levy. The latter brought a strange transparent ball with them and for Hawke' sake he let himself be persuaded to participate in the strange game that consisted of standing around in a circle and throwing the ball to one another and catching it. It was a blissful moment and he almost forgot everything he was and what had happened to him. He wasn't the abused runaway slave, he was just a young elf enjoying some freetime.

The moment however found a sudden end as cold suddenly started to lick at his skin and before he knew what was happening he heared Lucy scream „NATSU, NO!" as the ice around them broke into a million pieces. Fenris and the others covered their heads and faces with their arms, shielding themselves from the flying ice pieces. The remaining water at the same time became instantly, almost brewing hot. As he tried to take a guarded look at what was happening, he saw pointy ice crystals being shot at the whole beach and particularly big ones pierced through the bar where Isabela and Cana sat. They first screamed in terror as the frozen hell came raining down on her while the latter held out something that Fenris couldn't quite make out and swallowed the crystal that was about to fall directly on them. Slowly the ice stopped crashing down from the sky and Fenris and the others found their composure to leave the water. As soon as they stood on the hot sand they saw Natsu and Gray growling at eachother, pushing the blame for the damage done to the other. They both were interupted by the massive iron arm of Gajeel, beating both of them down. The bar's owner however didn't care about who did what exactly. The culprits were part of the guild so the whole guild had to pay for the damage, he argued. This was immediatly followed by an Erza who barely managed to bind her bikini properly around her chest, pulling both men by their hair and pushing their heads down with her feet into the sand, commanding them to apologize deeply and honestly, followed by a Mirajane and the Master Makarov bowing themselves before the owner, apologizing with deep regret. After a lot of begging and apologizing, the owner finally let himself be persuaded to agree to the repair done by the mages and washing service done by Natsu and Gray every evening for the next three months.

And thus Fenris' good mood was gone and it didn't improve when he was seated in front of raw fish during dinner.


End file.
